House of Cards - A BTS x Hogwarts AU
by jackfruitnim
Summary: Fourteen year old Kim Taehyung's kindness had always been taken as his weakness, pushing him to the brink of becoming something he hates. Although his friends Jin, Jungkook, Jimin, Hoseok, Yoongi and Namjoon vow to protect him, the evil is beyond their reach. Danger coils around them in different ways bringing them down like a house built on cards.
1. 1 Prologue

_"The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world..."_ ― Hermann Hesse. Demian.

 **1\. Prologue**

The cold was unbearable.

Seokjin tried to open his eyes. His body felt stiff and numb, pangs of chill coursed like a current through his limbs, stabbing his skin incessantly There were voices but he couldn't open his eyes, the cold clung to his lashes.

Slowly he started to feel strength returning to him. His eyes open, vision blurry. His young cousin was lying unconscious at a distance, bright yellow scarf thrown over his still form. Jin crawled towards him. 'Tae!' His voice cracked. The 14 year old showed no signs of waking up.

Jin looked to the other side, towards the voices of two girls. He recognised the dark haired one from her voice, the infamous Slytherin. Worry settled deep in his stomach, he had to get out of here before things got worse. Jin lifted Taehyung up in his arms laboriously, the cold locking his muscles. Only one thought ran through his head, he had to get his cousin out of the frosty dungeons of Hogwarts Castle.

The girl in the emerald robes watched him go, regret etched in her otherwise cold face. She turned her purple eyes toward the girl in front of her, her friend and roommate of the past five years crouched. The stone walls were damp and icy, offering no warmth to the shivering girl on the floor. Her faint whimpers echoed in the vast empty dungeon.

'Laura please,' she bit out, teeth clacking together. Laura inched forward, her wand lit to guide her way in the darkness. The ice glittered wherever the light touched. Her hand, glistened red with blood as she stroked her friend's hair. 'It was you, wasn't it?' she asked in a soft tone. Deep purple eyes looking at her intensely. 'I know it was you. Why are you denying it? Do you wish to suffer more?'

Her friend violently shook her head. Blood ran down her shaking arms. Laura's lip turned up in distaste. _Pathetic_ , she thought. 'Then tell me the truth Gwen. Why did you do it ?' She asked in the same soft tone again.

'I only... wanted to...' Gwen wheezed, 'I... Wouldn't you have done the same!'

'You disgust me,' Laura said, pushing her aside. Gwen slumped to the floor in pain. Laura stood up and walked towards the door, wiping her hand on her green robes. 'You call this honour? If it were in my hands I would throw you out of the Slytherin house right now. You don't deserve to breathe the same air we do.'

Gwen sobbed.

As Laura walked out of the door, she found her head of house, Professor Snape standing in the corridor. His usually placid expression was twisted in anger. The black hair falling on the sides of his face made him even more sinister.

'Miss Dracwyn,' he said to her in his deep nasally voice. 'My chambers, now. If I don't find you there by the time I get back, then consider yourself expelled.' He walked past her into the dungeon, his jet black robe flying behind him.

Another figure hurried into the corridor, a boy with pale hair and paler skin. His lilac eyes appeared dark grey in the dim light, flickering over Laura. His brows were narrowed in worry. 'Are you alright?' he asked her, pulling his velvet cloak tighter around his shoulders. It was getting colder by the minute, seeping past the dungeon and into the castle.

'Yoongi!,' Laura rasped. ' What are you doing here? And who told Snape?'

'I did,' Min Yoongi replied, looking away.

'Yoongi! I can't believe you-' but she was cut off. 'Listen to me, you had lost it. Do you have any idea what you have done?' Yoongi ran a hand through his hair. 'You would have been expelled if I hadn't told Snape. He is going to take care of the situation. That girl needs to keep her mouth sealed about this,' his hand fell back at his side.

Laura's anger was rising inside her. But she knew what Yoongi had done was right. She realised if she hadn't had her cousin to look out for her all these years, she would've gotten expelled ages ago, thanks to her short temper.

'Go to Snape's chambers and tell him all that happened. He will help you. He won't invite trouble from the Dracwyn family for himself,' Yoongi said. Laura nodded, feeling pissed off with the whole situation and then walked towards Snape's chambers. Yoongi watched her go and hoped she would do as he had told. They had spent five years at Hogwarts with barely any regard for the rules. But they were always clever about it. No student dared to cause them trouble and they always had Snape on their side. But this time, Laura had created a rather serious mess, going against another powerful Slytherin student.

Yoongi walked into the dungeon room where the girl was. Snape was making the girl drink a clear potion from a vial. There were healing wounds on her arms, but there was blood everywhere. Gwen finished drinking her potion and slumped to the ground, unconscious.

'Leave her on the side and help me clear this place out,' Snape said to Yoongi. He did as was instructed. He carried the girl to one side while Snape cleared all the blood off the floor with swishes of his wand.

'What did you give her?' Yoongi asked him. 'Oblivean,' Snape replied curtly. 'She won't remember a thing.' _Oblivean could leave damage to the brain,_ Yoongi thought to himself. It could cause dementia, or make her hallucinate. Yet Snape gave it to her to save Laura. Was this his degree of loyalty to the Death Eaters?

On the other end of the castle, Taehyung opened his eyes wide, heavily gasping for breath.

'Tae, I'm here, it's fine,' Jin cradled his head as he kneeled on the floor with Taehyung in his arms.

'I... Laura...' Taehyung gasped, pupils constricting in horror.

'She's gone. They're all gone. We are safe here,' Jin hugged him, trying to warm his cold body. Taehyung was shivering in fear, not knowing what had exactly happened. What had he done to deserve this?

 _Author's Note :_ _It all started with that one post my best friend showed me, of Namjoon sorting all of them into the four Hogwarts houses. It was like our two favourite worlds combined._ _This was supposed to me a really short story, but now its spun over a few many chapters, borrowing form the thoeries of the BTS universe._ _I hope you enjoy this crossover. The style of the story might be a little different that what is usually there in the sense that thus story has some original characters of as equal importance as the 7 boys. Constructive feedback is always welcome but if the story is not what you like, close it. Refrain from hateful comments, I hope we are all more mature than that :)_ _I have taken the liberty to change a few things from the canon. And this story was written prior to the release of Fantastic Beasts 2 so the plot will not follow any new revelations the movie makes._


	2. 2 The Reunion

**2\. The Reunion**

 _ **BTS Characters Year of Study**_

 _7th Years - Kim Seokjin | Kim Namjoon_

 _6th Years - Min Yoongi | Jung Hoseok | Park Jimin | Jeon Jungkook_

 _4th Year - Kim Taehyung (yes he's the maknae here)_

 _On with the chapter..._

Ash Vorhart walked into her new room holding her wand over her shoulder levitating her luggage. Sixth year had arrived, and Ash was looking forward to splitting her dorm two ways instead of four. Her roommate, Vanessa wasn't here yet. Ash's tall slender figure paced around the room and her green eyes sparkled as she took in the size of it. Deciding to take the bed near the western window, she started put her luggage next to it when she heard a knock on the door.

 _That must be Van_ , Ash thought as she stood up excitedly to usher her friend in. The door opened and a dark haired girl stepped in, dressed in black woven robes, dyed deep green on the insides. Her hair fell in waves from her shoulders to her waist. Her eyes were purple.

'You are not Van...' Ash said. Her question was met with an eyebrow raised in her direction, but no verbal reply ensued. The girl continued walking in, her sharp features in complete contrast to her soft almond shaped eyes.

Ash Vorhart knew this girl, if not by personal interaction, at least by her reputation. Everyone in their school knew Laura Dracwyn, the heir of one of the wealthiest and most ancient pure blood families. Not to mention very loyal followers of the Dark Lord. Ash watched Laura turning toward the sunlit window, the light bathing her face in a softer tone.

'Are you in the wrong room?' Ash asked the girl, walking toward her to get her attention. 'This room is 608. Vanessa and I h-,'

'Vanessa has been shifted to another room. I am your new roommate,' Laura said to her without much emotion. She brought her luggage in and lined it up at the foot of the empty bed.

'Shifted to another room? There must be a mistake!' Ash said, confusion colouring her tone.

She had never really spoken anything to Laura besides the occasional greeting. Laura Dracwyn kept to herself and her group of pure blood elites. Ash was friends with some of them but she always felt Laura was too cold.

'I'd say you could talk to the prefect about it. But then... I am the new prefect,' Laura said lazily, removing one item at a time from her suitcase. 'So, just believe what I say. It is what it is.'

'It is not what it is. I'm gonna go talk to Snape,' Ash said even though she knew Snape would throw her out of his chamber faster than you could say blimey. He would not entertain such a "trivial" matter. She stormed out of the room towards his chamber.

'You have come here to disturb me from my class preparation so that you could exchange roommates?' Snape said to her in his usual sarcastic dead-beat voice.

'Vanessa and I had made sure to file in our request at the earliest so it could be granted this semester. Why have you suddenly changed your mind?' Ash demanded of him.

'Miss Dracwyn does not have a roommate. Miss Gwen Osburg is at home due to a medical condition. Dracwyn needs a roommate so we have put her with you. Now stop wasting my time and leave,' Snape said.

'What happened to Gwen?' Ash asked him. Snape gave her a dangerous look.

'I am telling you one last time. Leave, or serve detention for the first whole month of your new semester.'

Ash was seething in anger by the time she reached her room. She banged the door shut, making the frames on the walls shake. She started to set her table, scrubbing the wax markings on the side table as she channeled her frustration. She looked through the window, watching Hogsmeade in the distance, smoke billowing out of many chimneys. Closer to them was the Great Lake, students were walking around, the juniors were playing, having fun.

'Ugh... what's he even doing' Ash said absentmindedly, seeing one of her 6th year housemates sitting with a Ravenclaw boy. The Slytherin boy had raven hair, chubby cheeks and eyes that crinkled when he smiled. His lips were plump and skin pale with a tint of pink on his cheeks. He was describing something very animatedly to the Ravenclaw, his small hands making invisible shapes in the air.

'Who?' Laura asked from her bed, flipping a page from the book in her hand.

'Park Jimin,' Ash replied, eyes trained on the boy. 'Why does he have to be so chummy with everyone...' she said to herself but Laura heard it too.

'Yeah, I don't know what's his deal,' Laura said, clearly feeling the same as Ash about their friendly fellow Slytherin. 'It's because of him that half the school knows all about our common room and all that we do here. Our world isn't much of a mystery anymore, all thanks to him. Is he a half-blood?' Laura enquired.

'No, he is of the Rheingold lineage. His mother is a half blood though,' Ash said, continuing to stare out the window. Her hand had ceased scrubbing the wax drippings.

'No wonder. The Rheingold's were always way too open to other people. The Dark Lord didn't approve much of it,' Laura stated.

Vorhart's attention snapped back to the reclining figure on the bed. She knew for a fact that Laura didn't mention the Dark Lord much. Though she came from a family of Death Eaters, her history with it was twisted in more ways than one. She had lost her mother and father in the war, killed by Aurors. Since the age of 9, her grandfather raised her, in a strict pure blood fashion. But to hear Laura speak of it was rare.

Ash slowly went back to setting up her table, wondering what life would be as an elite. Would it be better? Everywhere people knew you and respected you. If you have the right name, they even feared you. But seeing Laura, she wasn't so sure of it anymore.

A shout from the grounds distracted her and Ash looked over again. Jimin was being chased by the Ravenclaw boy and distantly noted his quick reflexes while evading the other. They were carelessly roaming beating each other with trick wands now. They ran into the castle. Ash rolled her eyes at their sillines and turned away.

Ash suddenly felt immensely grateful for her childhood and family. Though her lineage was pure blood, her family never imposed anything on her. They had fortunately escaped the pull of the Death Eaters. Being a Slytherin, she had to deal with the 'black-blooded' part of it- other students hated them for having families that followed the Dark Lord. But she wouldn't have liked to be in any other house than this. It felt just like home in Slytherin. Most of her childhood friends were here. Besides, muggle borns would bring their own weird muggle craziness and creations and she was glad to do without it. Her chain of thought broke as she saw Laura leave out the door and checked her clock. It was time for dinner. She decided to finish setting up quickly and go eat. The welcoming dinner of the year was always a big feast.

Laura stepped out of the girl's dorm right as Yoongi stepped out of his. Together they made their way to the Great Hall.

'You won't believe,' Yoongi had a frown on his face, 'Who my roommate is,'

'What's wrong? I thought it was Montague,' Laura said.

'Well I didn't want it to be Montague. I'm tired of his kiss ass behaviour. So I told Snape to make it anyone but him,'

'And?' Laura arched her eyebrows when one of their housemates came in with a smile.

'Hey Yoongi!' Park Jimin was waving at him on the foyer . 'Did you see the list? We are roommates this year,'

Laura chuckled, amused at Yoongi's misery while her cousin glared at her.

'Are you sure you wanna be my roommate Jimin?' Yoongi asked the boy before him.

'Well, why not?' Jimin asked seriously.

'I have rules, and if you break those rules...' Yoongi's hooded eyes watched Jimin's reaction. The boy wasn't scared at all. His cheeks were still tinted pink.

'It's ok, we'll work it out. You should know by now I'm a very organised person, so don't worry about a messy room,' Jimin smiled.

'And you'll keep the noise under 10 decibels. And if you see me sleeping, don't ever wake me up or I'll kill you,'

'Yeah I know you love your sleep, don't worry I won't disturb you. Never tickle a sleeping dragon,' he continued smiling.

'Well then,' Laura was enjoying this, 'aren't you the luckiest Yoongi?'

'Shut up,' Yoongi snapped. 'Let's go, Snape's waiting for us,'

'Yeah congratulations on being the new prefects!' Jimin called out behind them, waving his hand.

'Whatever,' Yoongi rolled his eyes.

'I can't believe this,' Laura was laughing. 'You got the loudest guy in our year when you sleep for 14 hours a day. You know you could switch him for Montague,'

'Never,' Yoongi bluntly said. 'Jimin is any day better. You know I can't stand fake ass morons. Jimin might be silly and naive but at least he's not faking it,'

'He's not that naive,' Laura said.

'And what makes you think that?'

'Some incidents... I feel like... he knows about... _him_ ,'

'Well,' Yoongi nodded, 'The sorting hat did put him in our house. A serpent is never naive. I heard they replaced Vorhart as your roommate. How's she?'

'She's alright. What's she like?' her cousin asked. 'You would know her better,'

Ash was the new Slytherin Quidditch team captain and Yoongi was the team's keeper. Ash had been his fellow team member for the past 3 years, 'Yeah, she's alright. Actually, it's good she's your roommate. She is not bothersome. Feel like you guys might even be friends,' Yoongi said.

'Ha, friends?' Laura chuckled, 'I feel like she dislikes me like the rest of the bloody school,'

'Yes, they should love you cuz you are so friendly to them' Yoongi said and Laura rolled her eyes.

That's when she saw a Hufflepuff boy walking towards them, looking nervous and scared. Laura could recognise the boy from any corner of the castle- Kim Taehyung: fourth year, Hufflepuff, silly, soft and smiles a bit too much. She remembered him sitting for the Sorting. His face was distinct to her from the time she saw him under the sorting hat - his sharp jaw with prominent cheekbones, a wide box smile with thin shapely lips and a slender nose. His silky-straight brown hair that fell on his forehead.

He was trying to meet her eyes but couldn't and kept looking back as if someone was following him. Laura and Yoongi slowed their pace. The boy came to them and tried to talk but no voice came from him.

'What's the matter boy?' Laura asked Taehyung.

'Speak up, or go,' Yoongi said firmly.

Just then two Slytherin 4th year boys walked into the corridor, cackling by themselves.

'There he is! The jerk!' They jeered at the Hufflepuff boy. The boy moved away from Laura and Yoongi in fear as they neared.

'Hey, stop bothering our seniors! Don't you have any respect for them?' The Slytherin named Derrek Rosier said, grabbing Taehyung by the back of his shirt's collar.

'We were looking for you, but you scurried off like a little mouse! Your house sigil should be a mouse, don't you think? You all look scared mice anyway,' the other boy - Jeffrey Coleman said.

'The mouse is not worth it. Leave him and let's all go eat,' Yoongi said stepping forward, motioning the other two boys to follow when the Hufflepuff prefect entered the corridor. The prefect looked angry and annoyed, his eyebrows scrunched together on his broad forehead. He had wavy copper hair and prominent, shapely lips and high cheekbones. The Hufflepuff prefect watched all of them carefully, zeroing on Derrek holding Taehyung's collar. 'What is going on here?'

Derrek quickly let go of it at the sight of the prefect and the Taehyung ran away, giving one last glance to Laura. _Taehyung... is he alright? What did these two do to him?_ Laura wondered face passive, as she watched him go.

Yoongi walked to the front, eyes on the other House prefect, he cocked his head and smirked, 'Nothing's going on Jung,' The Slytherin's lilac eyes looked fiercely into Jung Hoseok's and the Hufflepuff seemed to have accepted the challenge.

'You expect me to believe that?' Hoseok asked as he squared off against Min Yoongi.

'Jung, you as a prefect should believe another,' Yoongi stated, raising an eyebrow.

Hoseok mocked a smile. 'So you two are the new Slytherin prefects? Guess all the rest of us will have to keep an eye on you both.'

Laura glared at him. _How dare he?_ Hoseok realised he was getting the response he wanted and decided to tease her more. He walked past them to leave but paused after a few steps.

'It's a good thing I have the 'golden boy' in my team too,' he said and left. Without looking back, he knew that Laura would be boiling inside head to toe.

Yoongi cursed once he was gone. 'How was he made a prefect? He used to be one of the clowns in that house and now he's a prefect? Guess he's the best Hufflepuff has. That house is becoming more laughable as the years go,' Yoongi said, watching the Hufflepuff's back as he walked away.

Laura was not really listening to all that Yoongi was saying to her. She was still burning at the fact that her arch nemesis, from Ravenclaw- the golden boy of Hogwarts, was a prefect as well.

'Anyways, we have to head to Snape's chambers before the sorting ceremony begins,' Yoongi said and they headed to their house teacher's room where they would receive their prefect duties and robes.

Once they dressed as the Slytherin prefects, they headed to the Great Hall. Both wore white shirts with black coats and bottoms, over which they wore emerald green robes with silver borders and embroidered with the Slytherin sigil of the serpent.

The four colours of the Houses filled the Great Hall. It was already full of students laughing and chatting. The teachers were filing into their seats. Argus Filch stood at the main door, carrying his sneaky cat Mrs. Norris in his arms. The roof of the Great Hall showed a half moon with some silver clouds. Yoongi and Laura walked along the Slytherin table to sit in the front, the seat reserved for the Prefects, so that they could usher in the newly sorted first years. The Slytherin table was to the extreme left of the Great Hall. Next to it was the Gryffindor table, followed by Ravenclaw and then Hufflepuff at the extreme right. Laura tried to check on the junior boy Taehyung and caught a glimpse of him happily chatting with his friends on his table. She sat at her place in front, looking across the rest of the prefects, but her eyes were seeking only for one.

At the front of the Ravenclaw table sat Jeon Jungkook, wearing the blue robe of Ravenclaw. His frame was tall and lean with muscular arms and shoulders. His dark brown hair fell messily on his forehead and he wore round glasses. He was smiling and talking to his house mates. The prefect badge was shining on his chest. Even though she always knew that the Golden boy Jeon Jungkook would be made prefect it annoyed her to no end, to even acknowledge it. He was perfect in all aspects for everyone else. She hated that.

Ash entered with her friends and started walking towards her table.

'Is she too bad?' one of them asked her.

'She is bearable I suppose. But I think she'll make a very boring roommate,' Ash replied.

'I heard Gwen is not coming to school anymore because of her,' another friend of hers chimed in.

'Because of Laura? What could she possibly do?' Ash asked.

'I don't know! I just heard something like that...' her friend trailed off. 'Didn't you see how Gwen got snubbed by her last year? I heard them argue many times'

As Ash passed the Gryffindor table, she saw the Head Boy of their school, enter in black and red robes, the sigil of gryffindor stamped over the fabric boldly. He had a handsomely rugged face with blonde hair. His eyes looked at you with an intensity even behind thickly framed glasses. He caught her eye and looked at her for a moment and then looked away, just a bit shyly, dimples forming in his cheeks as he tried to hide a smile.

'That Kim Namjoon is looking at you again,' Ash's friends teased her.

'No he's not. He just happened to look in our direction,' Ash said.

'He is kind of cute and he's the head boy. Don't be so harsh on him Ash,'

'Um, he is Gryffindor! Do you seriously think I'll fraternise with a Gryffindor out of all the houses?' Ash said rolling her eyes. They took their seats. Ash was sitting across Namjoon who was trying his best to not look in her direction, trying a bit too hard. Kim Namjoon might be the most intelligent student in the school but he was so oblivious sometimes.

They were distracted by a sudden increase in giggles by the girls as someone walked into the great hall. Ash couldn't see at first glance but her suspicion was correct. The boy, known as the Prince of the Hogwarts, had just entered. Many people waved at him from all the tables and he waved back, giving them all a big smile.

He was very popular and had tons of friends. Kim Seokjin, or more commonly known as Jin, was easily the most handsome guy in the whole school. Maybe even in the whole of the current decade. He had a body with golden proportions with broad shoulders and a tall frame. His skin was fair and flawless. He had silky brown hair and big, expressive brown eyes that looked like pools of delicious melted chocolate. It was not just his looks that made him a Prince. His family was part of the royal bloodline from the east who had come to Britain around 200 years ago.

'Well I wouldn't mind fraternising with a Gryffindor if it was Jin,' her friends said, looking at Jin flirtily.

At times his beauty would astound Ash. But she had seen enough of his dorkiness in her five years of school to make her not fall for him. If it weren't for his looks, he would have been known as the school clown. He was Namjoon's best friend since their first year. Both made a cute pair, Ash thought. Namjoon had always shielded Jin from bullies, her Slytherin folks told her. Being prefect in his fifth year and now Head boy in his seventh year, Namjoon always had that authority about him. And Jin would take care of Namjoon, making sure he ate his food properly and resurfaced from his books once in a while.

As Jin sat next to Namjoon, he looked toward the front and realised Ash was sitting right across him. Ash could have sworn Jin bent his head down to the table trying to control his laughter at the situation. Jin was not good at being subtle. He was dying to tease Namjoon and Ash knew that from twenty feet away. By now everyone knew the rumour of Namjoon having a crush on her. But she preferred denying it just to keep the grapevine under control.

But one day, last year, the genius of subtlety - Jin, expressed his anger at Namjoon in the hallway about losing a Quidditch match to Slytherin. He scolded him that they lost the match because Namjoon, the Gryffindor seeker was too distracted by the Slytherin chaser: Ash. He said a lot more too. Angry Jin had no mouth filter.

'Hey guys!' Jimin walked in, giving a big wave to Jin and Namjoon.

'Oh hey!' the two Gryffindors waved at him with greeting smiles.

'Hey Jimin,' Jin's eyes twinkled mischievously, 'Namjoon was wondering if you could talk to Vorhart for him? Set them up,'

'When did I-!' Namjoon looked at Jin disbelievingly. The older threw his head back laughing.

'Vorhart?' Jimin gave a dry chuckle, 'You... you're still crushing on her?'

'Jimin, don't believe Jin,' Namjoon said to him pleadingly. 'He just wants to tease me-'

'Jiminnie, you know Namjoon is shy in these matters, so will you help him out?'

Jimin looked at Jin cluelessly, not knowing what to answer.

'Hey Park,' one of the Gryffindor seventh year girls named Jessica called to him, 'I guess you should head to your table now, the sorting ceremony is about to start,'

Jimin looked from Jessica to his friends and his smile faltered a little.

'The ceremony hasn't started yet,' Namjoon said, 'You can stay here a while Jimin,'

'No it's alright,' Jimin smiled. 'I don't want the sorting hat calling me out to sit down,' and he went to his table, sitting among some of the Slytherin juniors who welcomed him.

Jin gave a stern look to Jessica. Jimin was his friend. He was kind and humble, unlike many others of his house, yet people shunned him for being a Slytherin. Jessica looked startled at Jin's expression and only gave him a big smile in return.

'She's still pining for you,' Namjoon whispered to him, seeing the way Jessica smiled eagerly.

Jin sighed, turning his eyes to the front, 'When will they realise I'm not interested,' he glanced at Namjoon who was talking to another one of their friends. _I am not interested in them... but you are so oblivious._

The small Professor Flitwick stood up on his chair and clicked his glass which sounded abnormally loud and rang throughout the hall.

'Settle down everyone! It's time to welcome the first year students!' he announced and everyone went silent.

The great doors opened again and Professor Minerva Mcgonagall, led the students in. Yoongi watched them walk past her wondering who all will be the new Slytherins. The first year students looked like little children to him. He couldn't believe he was that small when he first came here.

Kim Taehyung watched the ceremony with a smile on his face, clapping excitedly for all the new Hufflepuffs. He greeted them with high fives, made them feel welcome. He was trying to not think of the incident that happened a little while ago. The two Slytherin boys- Jeffrey and Derrek had knocked his trunk down when he was heading towards his dorms. Taehyung had lost his cool and warned them to stop, which made them corner him against the wall and threaten him with the disappearance of his new owl. Taehyung couldn't bear to put another living being in pain for his sake, so he let it go, broke his fiery gaze from the boys to look at his shoes. He'd rather take the pain than put someone else through trouble.

He had been Jeffrey and Derrek's target for bullying since the first year. Hoseok, his friend since the beginning of school had tried his best protect him but how much could one person do. Snape always swooped in to rescue his house students.

Will things change now that Laura and Yoongi were prefects? He had learned not to keep his hopes too high. His eyes scanned the table further. Laura's friend Gwen was nowhere to be seen. Where was she? A chill went down Taehyung's spine remembering what had happened in the dungeons, on the last day of the previous year.

'Are you alright?' Hoseok asked him while he was walking around the table, making sure the first years got a seat.

'I'm fine Hobi,' Taehyung smiled. 'You don't have to worry,'

'Of course I do. Even more now that those two are prefects,' Hoseok looked in the direction of the Min-Dracwyns. Laura was busy ushering the students in. Yoongi was talking to one of his friends, smirking about something. His gaze suddenly shifted to the front, finding Hoseok looking at him with distaste from across the tables and Yoongi raised his eyebrow. Hoseok looked away, he had enough of Yoongi teasing him over the years.

They heard the clink of McGonagall's goblet and the chatter died down. Taehyung looked at his empty plate and gulped. He was starving. Their headmaster, professor Albus Dumbledore stood up and smiled at all of them. He was wearing lavender robes with silver thread work, matching his long silver beard. His blue eyes twinkled as he started his traditional speech before the commencement of the feast.

 _Notes - Huuuu, the first chapter. I know, lot's of characters but bear with me! The plot will thicken soon. If you liked this please let me know on my twitter - jackfruitnim_


	3. 3 Flashes

**3\. Flashes**

The staircase groaned as it moved from the first floor, startling the Slytherin First years about to step on them. Their prefects, Yoongi and Laura stood calmly, the fire from the mantle glinting off the jewel-encrusted dragon's eye on their robe's clasp, drawing whispers from the First Years who had only heard of the Min-Dracwyn and their dynasty of dragonriders. Clearly they were awestruck having heard of their legendary history. Their ancestors were people of such power and magic that the Ministry had over time systematically curtailed the use of dragons and the Min-Dracwyn's turned their interests elsewhere. But their intimidating aura remained.

Yoongi and Laura led the line of first year Slytherins down the hall, past rows and rows of paintings on the wall that spoke to them in familiar tones. Some Hufflepuffs loitering near the end of the corridor immediately moved to the side to let the Slytherin group pass them, even as they frowned and a seventh year Hufflepuff clucked angrily at them.

'A whole lot of new snakes,' he whispered disapprovingly under his breath, just loud enough for his group of friends to hear.

Two of the most disliked and feared Slytherins had been given a position of power. Yoongi was surrounded by the richest and most elite Slytherins since he had joined Hogwarts and no one dared cross his path because they knew there would be hell to pay. Although Yoongi wouldn't go after anyone without reason, the same could not said for a few others around him.

The light got dimmer and the air cooler as they traversed through the castle. The Slytherin dorms were located on the North side, farthest from the other dorms. A winding staircase led them below and soon they reached the damp grey wall - the entrance to the Slytherin territory.

'Emerald Occulorum,' he said and the bricks began to shift , leaving an open passage for three to enter at a time. The quiet but curious first years trudged through the passage a little uneasily. Their parents had undoubtedly told them of their own House but to experience it was a different matter altogether.

Just as opulent as the House occupants itself, the common room retained its regency over that of the other Houses. It's ambience was dark and cool interspersed with dim but wide arcing pools of green lanterns. The common room extended underground, into the great lake. Cool green light from the water shined through the windows. One could see the small creatures of the lake through the windows. It had the feel of a mysterious underwater shipwreck.

'Woah...' many of the first years stood in amazement. Yoongi and Laura were smugly amused at their reaction. _Bet no other house had a common room like this._

The Slytherin emblem hung over the main fireplace, it's emerald eyes shining in the fire. The curtains and the furniture was in shades of grey and green. Portraits of important Slytherin alumni hung on the wall, which Laura completely ignored as she explained the layouts of the dorm.

'The boys dorms are to the left and the girls to the right, both head upstairs. Get changed and meet us in exactly 10 minutes,' Yoongi continued noticing how Laura avoided looking at the portrait of their grandfather.

Yoongi's usual friends, the elite seniors came to join them in the briefing.

'Vorhart,' Laura called out to her roommate who had just come in. 'You ought to be part of the briefing team. You are a senior and the Quidditch captain,' she said to her.

Ash blinked for a moment. Was a Dracwyn willingly inviting another person into their little elite group?

'Yeah sure,' she replied dispassionately and walked to where they were seated.

Just then Yoongi saw Jimin enter and shook his head, 'And someone keep Jimin away from them. He will completely undo the effect of the briefing,'

Jimin looked like they had taken away his candy from him. His eyes widened and plump lips pulled into a round 'o' 'Whaaat? Keep away from me? What am I gonna do?' he whined.

'You are an overly friendly puppy. They need to fear us so that they don't get their royal arses whooped,' Ash said.

'Alright,' Jimin pouted and went to a corner on the first level. He was often childlike, and despite finding being annoyingly friendly, Ash and Laura were always slightly amused by him, though they would never show it.

'This prefect business is bothersome,' Yoongi said to himself sprawling on the luxurious couch. Everyone sat around him. He removed a lollipop from his robe, unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth.

The first years came one by one. They all saw some familiar faces. All pure blood families knew each other at least by name. The juniors formed a line and looked at the group of seniors nervously.

Yoongi's deep authoritative voice reverberated off the cold walls 'Do you know us?' The first years nodded nervously. One of them spoke up, 'Min Yoongi and Laura Dracwyn. You both are the new prefects,' a boy said. 'And Ash Vorhart, the new Quidditch team captain. Tassia Carrow, Graham Montague and Terence Higgs, the Quidditch team seeker.'

'And you are?' Laura asked.

'I'm Theodore Nott,' he said. The boy's blue eyes looked at them with guarded curiosity.

'Thanks to Nott, now you all know who we are,' Yoongi said. 'And you better listen to us all if you want to live as part of House Slytherin.' He paused for maximum effect, noting the slight tremor that ran through the gathering appreciatively. _Better to be feared than to be loved,_ his grandfather's voice echoed from the depths of his memory.

Yoongi grew quiet, his hands slack as he recollected his composure. He spoke again, voice a little lower, 'Do you know who is the head Professor of our house?'

'Professor Snape!' a first year girl said. 'He teaches potions.'

'Good. Professor Severus Snape. He is the potions master and the head of our house. And he will take care of you, as long as you all show sensible behaviour. He has no tolerance for nonsense and trust me, you do not want to test his patience,' Yoongi said glancing at Snape's portrait hanging on the alumni wall.

'As for interaction with the other houses, remember that we all compete for the house cup every year,' Laura added.

'Oh, who won last year? Was it Slytherin?' the same girl asked enthusiastically.

Laura pursed her lips and glanced away.

'Ravenclaw won the cup last year,' Ash answered. 'And that's why we all have to buckle up and work harder for it.'

'Bloody Ravenclaw...' Ash heard Laura mutter under her breath.

'We earn points by being smart in class and exhibiting the required behaviour,' Ash continued. 'Any of the teaching staff at Hogwarts can add or deduct points from the houses, so be clever about your actions. The points earned in Quidditch are also added towards the overall house points. The first years cannot join the Quidditch team. But I will be looking out if any of you are good enough to join next year. We have tryouts each year.'

'And by house rule, you cannot tell other house students where our dormitories are, what happens in our common rooms and the password to the dorms,' the tall and burly 6th year, Graham Montague said to them, adding to the intimidating factor.

'If any of you break the dormitory rules, it will be detention in the dungeons for a month,' Yoongi gave them all a formidable look. 'Remember, we play to win, because we care about the honour and traditions of Slytherin. And if any of you break the Slytherin traditions, whether you get detention or not, I will see to it that you learn your lesson.'

The first years nodded nervously.

'Alright then,' Yoongi got up to leave. The juniors backed away and Yoongi passed through them, followed by the other members of his group.

Ash was the last one and she turned towards the juniors, 'Don't lose your way in the castle. In any case, we Slytherins look out for each other so you guys should be ok,' she felt a bit sorry for how scared they were right now. 'You can ask our house ghost, The Bloody Baron for help as well. But remember, he doesn't speak unless absolutely necessary so don't annoy him. You'll regret it,'

Jimin was watching all of this from the corner... they sidelined him, again. This had been happening from the start, because he wanted to be a friendly person instead of a pretentious snob. Did they think that he didn't know how insecure each one was behind this mask they wore? He lived with them. He had seen their moments of weakness, of despair and, even of affection. But he wasn't supposed to speak about that... his house had a reputation to keep.

But this year, he wanted to be out of the sidelines, especially now that Ash Vorhart was the Quidditch Captain and he had only two years left at this school. Jimin hurried towards her and tapped her shoulder lightly, greeting her with his usual eye smile, 'Hey Ash, when are the Quidditch tryouts this year?'

'I'm holding tryouts next week, the warm up match with Ravenclaw will be soon. You're not planning to try are you?'

'I just might,' Jimin replied, somewhat mysteriously. He gave her a blinding smile and went his way towards the winding path leading to the boy's dormitories.

Ash blinked a few times thinking she had heard wrong. Jimin wanted to join the Quidditch team?! Since when had he been interested in anything resembling a fight?

She eyed his retreating figure, _he looks quite athletic but why the sudden interest? I have no idea what goes on in his mind._ She shook her head and proceeded to her room. After wearing her pyjamas, she lounged on her bed with a novel. She was halfway through it when Laura entered, carrying a nicely wrapped package.

'It's the first day and you are already getting packages from home?' she asked, flicking a stray hair off her forehead in annoyance.

'This isn't from home, Laura replied, eyes narrowed. 'My Grandfather isn't a person to send me wrapped up gifts,' she said tossing the package on her side table.

'Not from home? Oh, okay.' Ash didn't want to ask too many questions in a matter which didn't really concern her. Packages were personal.

'It's from Graham's mother,' Laura said, pulling out clothes from her trunk with vigour.

'Graham Montague?' Ash asked, sitting up from her position in bed.

'Yes,' Laura said with a sigh.

Graham Montague had fancied Laura from a long time. Ash personally didn't like him much. Whenever he opened his mouth, he only praised himself.

'Oh yeah, its your birthday day after isn't it. But why is his mother gifting you stuff? You guys are close?'

'Well, how do I say this... Guess the Montagues want to be close to my Grandfather. I don't really care whatever they do. They are annoying to be honest.'

'Annoying, he is,' Ash laughed, rolling her eyes, 'but Montague has a thing for you... doesn't he?'

'He has a thing for the Dracwyn name. Nothing more,' Laura stated and walked to the bathroom, again giving the vibe of being lonely even though she was surrounded by people.

Ash returned to her book without comment. She didn't expect Laura to be chatty at all. She had always found her rather quiet. _Maybe there's hope after all_.

Next Day

It had been an overall dull day for Kim Taehyung, with McGonagall starting out on a difficult chapter and he didn't even want to start with how bad potions went. Their friendly groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid was substituting for Professor Silvanus Kettleburn as Care of Magical Creatures teacher until Kettleburn recovered from a mountain troll attack. And even Hagrid decided to have a dull class. He thought taking care of 'night glow slugs' was a good start to their advanced year.

He was heading towards his last class- An elective on 'Charms and Its Importance in the Wizarding World' This was one of the few classes that students from different years shared. He was early to the class and sat near Professor Flitwick's table, waiting for the class to begin.

His eyes felt heavy, thanks to the boring day and before he knew it, his head was on the desk.

He dreamt of it again... the cold and dark dungeon. Their wand kept flicking in his direction, flashes of bright, hot light coming towards him.

 _Stop hurting me._

He was on his knees, weak. A girl's strained voice rang through his head.

'Tell me what you're hiding?!' 'I know you have a secret!' 'What did your Auror mother tell you?'

Her spells kept attacking him, until he saw a flash of a familiar face. Jin was there and there was a white light. The heat had died and everything was cold now.

 _I should kill her._

'Taehyung?' He felt a hand shake him. Taehyung's eyes snapped open and he gasped for air. He was in the charms classroom and professor Flitwick was looking at him worriedly.

'Did you have a nightmare?'

'S-Sorry, P-Professor,' Taehyung blinked his eyes while his heartbeat settled down. _It was only a dream... I'm fine._ 'I just fell asleep. I'm ok,'

'Are you sure?' Flitwick still seemed worried.

'Of course,' Taehyung smiled, putting his thoughts away. 'What are you teaching us today professor?'

'Well, I thought I take some theory on the effects of the Protean charm-' Flitwick's voice died out seeing the disappointed look on Taehyung's face.

'Professor, we've had a boring day, please teach us something fun! Your charms elective classes are as it is rare,'

And of course there was no way on earth Flitwick or anyone else could deny Taehyung's innocent yearning. Flitwick's moustache twitched twice, and the small professor made a noise of affirmation as he said,'Alright, let's have a fun class,'

Taehyung gave him a big box-shaped smile, bright enough to light up the entire great hall.

Students were still walking in while Flitwick told them to sit in pairs of two and Ash Vorhart took the seat next to Taehyung.

'Hello Vorhart!' Taehyung greeted her happily. They had been partnered once before in another class and Taehyung had liked her friendly demeanour. She was nicer than the rest of her house. Ash smiled back at him and settled into her seat.

'Okay class, open your books to page 293,' Professor Flitwick announced, easily getting to the right page despite the book being much larger than him. 'I thought we'd do something fun for our first class of the year. The Vineoqua spell, used to turn water to wine, has been around for ages. It has been considered one of the most useful charms, if you know what I mean,' Flitwick gave out a chuckle and some students responded back including Taehyung's partner.

'This should be fun,' Ash chuckled.

'Now it is very important that the charm be done correctly or you'll get something terrible. It is important to concentrate and flick your wrist in the upward motion,' He demonstrated the spell, ' _Vineoqua_.' The large goblet of water turned into a cherry coloured wine. He then took a sip out of the recently turned wine goblet. 'Mmm, yes this has come out really well.' He offered it to a sixth-year student nearby who also agreed with him.

Taehyung turned towards her, smiling wide, 'Okay let's start. I'll go first.'

'Yeah, okay,' Ash replied. To be truthful, she wasn't immune to his smile, like the rest of the students who had been graced to be in the presence of it..

Taehyung tried a couple of times but it was like he was nearly there but not quite getting the right flavour. Ash was the one testing the flavour of the nearly made wines. There was a senior in every pairing who were the ones trying the wine. Professor Flitwick didn't want a class full of drunk children. And students above the age of 15 were trusted old enough to take care of themselves.

Suddenly there was some clapping going around in the class. Ash and Taehyung turned their heads to see what was up. Flitwick and some of the classmates were clapping and a boy with black hair was standing up on his chair proudly showing off his perfectly cherry red wine.

 _Of course it's him._

Park Jimin was exceptionally good at Charms.

'Very good Jimin! Well done,' Flitwick continued to praise him excitedly while Jimin beamed.

Taehyung was back to giving his charm a try. Ash was beginning to feel a little sluggish from all the tasting she had done till now. As Taehyung continued to try, Ash watched Jimin come over to their bench.

'Tae-Tae, that's not how you flick your wrist and remember to speak clearly,' Jimin said to Taehyung while standing over the goblet on their table. And with Jimin's golden touch, Taehyung actually got it right.

'Now you try Ash,' Jimin said turning towards her. His persona was so happy all the time that she didn't know what to do. Be happy or just run away.

'Yeah,' Ash said, trying to look anywhere but at Jimin who was blinding her with his earnest eyes and encouragement. She took out her wand and flicked it. Nothing happened. She tried again and the water in her goblet turned pink.

'That must be _Rose_ ,' She said and took a sip only to spit it out just as quickly. 'Okay, not _Rose_.' She tried again. She could see that her wand movement was sloppy thanks to all the wine in her. She felt a little too relaxed. Around the room the seniors lazily moved their wands. Ash even saw one Ravenclaw boy passed out and his partner trying to wake him up.

Suddenly she felt someone's hand envelope hers.

 _All this wine is making me so dull,_ she thought, blinking her eyes and looking at the hand holding her wand hand. They felt so soft and so cool to the touch. She looked up, following the hand to its owner, and it was Jimin. He had a big smile on his face which made his eyes look like crescents.

 _His smile is really nice._ Her brain was fuzzy at this point.

'Like this. Flick it to right. Yes, that's great!' Jimin exclaimed. She looked down at the goblet and saw that she had successfully managed to do the charm.

'Thanks,' she quietly said to him. He gave her a big smile again and started to walked away. 'Cute,' she said quietly to herself but Jimin halted in his steps for just a second. And she realised what transpired.

'Shit!' She cursed quietly since they were still in class. She glanced at Jimin who had decided to continue on his path towards his seat. _Oh thank god he left. Did he hear me?_ _I didn't just think what I thought earlier. And what the heck was wrong with me, just being totally okay with him holding my hand. Like it was no big deal._ She could feel her cheeks warming up and she didn't want to think that it was because of him.

'No it's definitely the wine,' she said to herself and slapped both her cheeks lightly.

The next day, the Slytherins had their first ever Apparition class with the Hufflepuffs. Everyone was buzzing with excitement. Yoongi heard some Hufflepuff muggle borns saying that this was going to be like getting their driving license and scratched his head uninterestedly.

They were taken to a location slightly far from the castle. It was a vast open ground and the official instructor for Apparition, Wilkie Twycross had come from the Ministry of Magic. He was a short man with wisps of grey hair and grey eyes on a wrinkled face. He wore cream and pale green robes, a round belly showing. Apparition on Hogwarts grounds was forbidden and they had protective charms from blocking apparitions from happening to and from the castle. For their training, a specific area had been chosen and the blocking charms disabled.

'Now, you need to remember the 3 Ds of apparition - Destination, Determination and Deliberation. One must be completely determined to reach one's destination, and move without haste, but with deliberation. You need to completely focus towards the place you want to go to. If you don't, you could land in a tricky spot, where there is water below your feet or just dead air,' he explained to them. 'Repeat after me Destination, Determination, Deliberation.'

All the students repeated, all in their own off-tone voices and speed. Twycross looked at them, little hope falling from his face. Laura and Yoongi looked bored.

'Can he move this along? Do we have to be here all day? I'm sleepy already,' Yoongi yawned.

'Hey Yoongi,' Ash joined him. 'Vanessa was asking about you,'

Yoongi suddenly looked uncomfortable. He glanced towards the said person. Vanessa, his fellow housemate... and ex girlfriend, was not looking at him. She was talking to some of her friends, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears.

'Ok I lied,' Ash admitted. 'I just want to know what's happened between you guys,'

Yoongi gave her a hard look and when Ash didn't back down, he ran a hand through his hair, sighing. 'We just... realized we had some _differences_ ,'

In front of them Twycross continued. 'You will feel like you are squeezing through a tight tube while you apparate. Don't let that distract you from focusing on your destination. And as soon as you feel solid ground on your feet, remember to maintain your balance. Everyone form a line, we'll be going one by one.'

There was some tugging and pushing as the Hufflepuffs formed a line, contrary to the Slytherins who went about it more smoothly. Laura was among the last ones with Ash before her.

'Hey Ash!' Jimin called out to her from the front. He moved two places back to be in front of her.

'You aren't hungover are you?' he asked her, concern lining his voice.

'Uh, I guess not. Are you?' she asked him, trying not to be conscious of how she had become buzzed that day.

'A bit, yeah,' Jimin admitted shyly. 'I ended up tasting wine from many people yesterday. Woke up with a throbbing head but I didn't want to miss apparition,'

'You know you need full focus for this right?' Ash asked him startled.

'I hope I manage! Honestly I just wanna lie down somewhere,' he said running his small hands through his charcoal hair.

As the students attempted apparition, many of the trials invited a lot of laughter or shocked exclamations from the rest. People were falling left and right. Some didn't apparate for a whole minute and their extremely focused face just invited more laughter. Many felt dizzy and some threw up. Next was Jimin's turn. He walked to the spot and held his wand straight. It was a light shade wood, short wand with engravings on the hilt. He closed his eyes tight but nothing happened for a while.

'Visualize properly boy,' Twycross said to him.

'Yes yes, I'm trying,' Jimin said and closed his eyes tight again. Ash thought the crinkling of his nose was incredibly cute.

There was a pop and Jimin disappeared in black and green swirls. A few seconds passed and he didn't appear.

'Where's he?!' Ash asked, slightly panicked.

'Oh no, Jimin!' Twycross exclaimed, frantically looking left and right.

They heard a pop and a scream filling the air. Ash noticed just in time to see a figure falling down from 30 feet high. She snapped out her wand.

'IMMOBULUS!' She said loud and firm pointing the wand at the falling figure in the sky.

Jimin froze, three feet above the ground. Ash released her charm and he landed softly on the grassy ground, panting hard.

'Oh my gha-,' he wheezed, still trying to process the situation.

'Are you ok boy?' Twycross asked, rushing at his side.

'I'm... I'm ok... what happened?' Jimin was utterly shocked.

'You appeared in the air, quite high up. You did not focus on your destination properly did you? If it weren't for the quick acting of your fellow house student, you would've needed Madam Pomfrey now,' he said to him, pointing towards Ash.

Jimin stood up, feeling shaky and walked to his batchmates, running his hands through his hair.

'Are you okay?' Ash asked with concern.

'You saved me...' Jimin said blankly, still trying to grasp what had happened. 'I could've broken my skull or something...'

'Do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey?' Ash asked.

Jimin didn't seem to be hearing her. 'Thanks Ash...' he said looking at her with big eyes, a smile creeping up on his face as he brushed the back of his head with his palm.

'Ok you don't seem to be in the best condition. Can you hear me?' Ash asked, waving her hand in front of his face. Jimin started smiling wide at this.

'Yes yes, I can hear you. I'm alright really!' He said beaming at her. Ash was instantly reminded of his smile from yesterday when he held her hand and her cheeks warmed up again.

'Ok, move along, you Hufflepuff boy, you're next,' Twycross pointed towards Hoseok.

'I've heard some people can suffer injuries when you apparate. Is that true?' Hoseok asked, worried.

'Already scared, are you Jung?' Yoongi sneered. 'You know you can go back if you want to. This isn't a compulsory class, so if you are too scared...'

'I am not afraid,' Hoseok retorted, looking back at Yoongi and defiantly and stepped towards Twycross.

'You sure? What if you leave your head behind and only your body apparates?' Yoongi jested.

'Is that possible?' Hoseok asked Twycross in whispers, frowning in tension and fear.

'No, no, that won't happen. Just concentrate well on your destination and you'll be totally fine,' Twycross tried to console him. 'Cases of body splinching have happened but they were very rare and would never happen unless you can't visualise your destination or are still extremely focused on your previous location than where you want to go,'

'Go on, get on with it then!' Yoongi called out.

'Ok that's enough Min. You will stay silent unless you want points deducted from Slytherin,' Twycross said to Yoongi. The teacher moved back a few paces to give Hoseok space. The sunlight glistening on the mirror like locket Twycross wore, glaring the light into Hoseok's face, making him squint his eyes.

Hoseok stepped forward slowly, hands tightly fisted around his wand. He had side-apparated with his father before and travelled by portkey. He should be ok. Twycross had marked two spots with a cross and flag, one in red and other in blue, 500 metres apart. They were supposed to apparate from one spot to another.

'Hold your wand firmly and concentrate on the spot marked blue,' Twycross said to him.

Jung Hoseok closed his eyes, concentrating hard. There was a sudden loud crack from the cluster of students and Hoseok jumped in the air, screaming. Someone among the students had exploded a small rock to scare him. The Slytherins again roared in laughter.

'Min Yoongi! I warned you!' Twycross said impatiently, his chubby finger wagging in the direction of the slytherin prefect.

Yoongi shrugged, acting innocent, 'I didn't do that! I don't know who did it!'

'Another interruption and I will take 20 points from Slytherin. That's my final warning,' Twycross said crossly. And then he turned to Hoseok.

'C'mon boy. It's not that hard,' he said, getting slightly impatient from all the ruckus.

Hoseok nodded and concentrated again, his wand held up straight against his face. He felt a whirring sound but ignored it. Suddenly he felt all of his body being compressed in... too much... no, no this was too painful. He opened his eyes and there was grey mist, and a few faces, a hand moving with a wand... He was screaming in pain, unable to make sense of anything.

Hoseok had apparated but his legs were bleeding. Long gashes ran across it. Twycross and the Hufflepuffs ran towards him. He looked like he was wrapped in red ribbons which were slowly spreading over his clothes.

'We need to take him to the infirmary. Don't worry, you'll be alright.,' Twycross shouted over his shouts of pain. 'Class dismissed,'

Yoongi's face was white, watching all of this, completely stunned out of his senses. What had just happened? He was just joking around...

He saw the Hufflepuffs give him the stink eye, murmurs already erupting. Yoongi looked away in anger and walked back to the castle alone, his thoughts on what had happened to Hoseok, his bloodied and painful state.

In the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey came rushing towards Hoseok with _Ditanny_ while the nurses carefully stripped him off his blood soaked clothes. He was in agony, he had never felt this kind of pain before.

Yoongi halted outside the infirmary door. He wanted to know what was going on.

'Splinching is always curable isn't it?' Yoongi heard Twycross ask.

'Splinching is curable but I've never seen anything like this,' was Pomfrey's reply. Yoongi could feel his heart thudding inside his chest. What had exactly happened?

He heard footsteps approaching and hurriedly moved away, pretending to walk down the corridor as Twycross exited with Pomfrey. Yoongi sat on the ledge of one of the windows, wondering if he should go in and check on Hoseok.

 _Why am I bothered. If I go in, he's gonna blame this on me..._ the Slytherin shook his head. But he couldn't get the image out a bleeding and crying Hoseok of his head...

'Fuck this,' he muttered and walked into the infirmary.

Hoseok was on his bed, wrapped up in bandages. The nurse made him drink a potion and as soon as she left, Hoseok's eyes found Yoongi.

'What are you doing here?' Hoseok's tone wasn't kind.

'Are you alright?' Yoongi asked. His fists were clenched. _Why am I doing this?_

'Don't pretend like you care Min,' Hoseok looked away. 'Are you worried I'm going to tell on you?'

'Do you really think I did this?' Yoongi asked him in disbelief. Sure their history wasn't a friendly one. But Yoongi had never been violent with him.

'I don't know...' was all the Hufflepuff said.

'You splinched Jung. This happens in apparitions,'

'Pomfrey was quite sure this wasn't splinching. Someone did something to me. I saw a wand move,'

Yoongi was speechless. Could this be true? 'Are you sure?'

'Positive,' Hoseok replied, lifting his chin dismissively. He wouldn't be shaken from his conviction.

Yoongi clenched his teeth, jaw tight, he replied cuttingly, 'You can give whatever statement you want to Dumbledore... but I never lie Jung. I would never ever do this to you,' and he walked out of the room.


	4. 4 Shadows

**4\. Shadows**

'Are you sure?' Taehyung's brown eyes looked intently over Hoseok.

'I was sure...' Hoseok adjusted himself on the infirmary bed. Taehyung immediately helped him up, setting his pillow right. 'But... I heard Pomfrey mentioning my... mental issues to Sprout. They think I hallucinated it and now I'm doubting myself,'

'But you've not... you've been well for a long time,' Taehyung said. 'Something should trigger the hallucination,'

'Nothing trigger worthy has happened,' Hoseok shrugged.

Taehyung gulped. Hoseok says someone attacked him... and he felt Hoseok was right. But was this just his paranoia speaking? Because the Slytherins attacked him as well? To torture a secret out of him which he didn't even hold.

'Tae are you not telling me something?' Hoseok's eyebrows knitted together at the younger's thoughtful expression.

'Huh?' Taehyung blinked at him. He trusted his friend Hoseok with his life. After this incident, maybe he should confide in him. What if danger still lurked around them? Was someone else going to be attacked too?

They heard a knock on the door and their headmaster walked in, his light blue robes shining in the moonlight.

'Ah Taehyung,' Dumbledore looked kindly at the boy. 'Past your curfew isn't it? Its nearly midnight,'

'Yes Professor,' Taehyung stood up from the bed. 'Sorry I just wanted to see him once,'

'That's alright,' Dumbledore nodded. 'But head back now,' he smiled at the boy and Taehyung left without another word. Dumbledore turned his attention to Hoseok. His eyes were warm as he gently sat at the foot of the bed.

'How are you Hoseok?'

'Much better,' Hoseok smiled slightly. 'Wounds are almost healed. I can move around now,'

'Good... Hoseok, Madam Pomfrey tells me, you saw something when you apparated. What did you see?' Dumbledore's blue eyes looked at him intently.

'Some faces... a hand moved, pointing a wand at me,' the boy answered.

'Did you recognise these faces?'

'I...' Hoseok hesitated and sighed. 'No,'

'I don't think there is any need to worry Hoseok,' Dumbledore said. 'These things happen during apparition,'

Hoseok nodded. Dumbledore smiled and left him. He knew this was going to be the outcome. Maybe... they were right. His mind told him that, but his heart was still unsettled.

Yoongi was pacing up and down the corridor near the infirmary. He felt like he should check up on Hoseok but couldn't make himself face him again. What would he even say to him? They weren't friends. They were quite the opposite. From the moment Hoseok had upset him by stepping on his foot on the Hogwarts express five years ago, Yoongi had found him annoying. Annoyingly happy, loud and animated. He was all the things Yoongi disliked.

Had he grown some sort of attachment to the vexation he felt for Hoseok? He probably had... or else why would he be here, wondering if Hoseok would be ok enough to attend classes tomorrow... well, Yoongi needed something to entertain himself and teasing Hoseok was as entertaining as it gets.

'Mister Min,' the Headmaster's voice made him jump.

'Sir,' Yoongi cleared his throat. 'I was... I was just making the rounds. Prefect duty,'

'I see,' Dumbledore nodded. 'If I were you, I'd move quietly. People are sleeping in the infirmary,'

'Oh,' Yoongi nodded, not meeting Dumbledore's eye and the headmaster left with a slight smile.

So Hoseok was asleep... maybe it's the perfect time. He won't even know I'm there.

Yoongi walked to the infirmary, as quiet as a cat. The lights were out and he saw Hoseok's form outlined in the moonlight, facing away from him. His body slowly raised up and down as he breathed. Yoongi walked in and stood close enough so that he could partially see Hoseok's face. His wounds seemed to have almost healed. His friends had left him some care packages. There was a box of muffins with Jin's name written quite evidently in red with a heart, below which Jin had written '+ Joon+Em'. He couldn't believe Jimin drew him a get well soon card. Is he five? He probably is and that Jeon Jungkook is three. Because the Ravenclaw had tried to squeeze in his name somewhere on Jimin's artwork.

Suddenly Hoseok turned and Yoongi had nowhere to run, walking backwards rapidly and banging his leg on the chair behind him. Hoseok's eyes flared up, fixing on Yoongi's shocked face.

'Min?' his eyebrows narrowed. Was he seeing right?

Yoongi gulped and Hoseok slowly sat up.

'What are you doing here?'

'Nothing,' Yoongi looked down, eyes darting from one corner of the floor to the other and then he strode off with fast, heavy footsteps, his heart beating a hundred miles an hour.

Yoongi reached his dorm and fell onto the plush green sofa, face and palms sweating.

'If you act like this, people are gonna think you did it you know,' he heard his cousin. Yoongi looked at her from the corner of his eye. Laura sat with many papers floating around her, arranging notes.

'What do you mean?' Yoongi asked her.

'Sneaking off to see Jung. Why do you want to see him anyway?'

'I...' Yoongi gulped nervously again. 'I saw how bad he was hurt,'

'And you were worried about him?'

Another figure invaded Yoongi's line of vision, a girl, walking in and settling near Laura. Yoongi knew who it was... and he wished he could apparate out of here this very moment.

'Worried about whom?' it was Vanessa's voice.

'That Jung Hoseok. Who got splinched today,' Laura replied. Yoongi glanced up and regretted it instantly because his ex's blue eyes looked at him with a gaze that spelled 'I told you so.'

Yoongi cursed under his breath and strode to his room.

The Next Day-

Jungkook adjusted his new blue prefect robes as he proudly walked into the Transfiguration classroom. Today's first class was a subject he loved, by his favourite teacher. Professor Mcgonagall was seated on her desk, writing some notes. He made his way to one of the seats in the front, excited about the new class. Just as he was about to grab the chair, another hand grabbed it. He recognised the ring on the small hand- a silver dragon biting its own tail, with an amethyst eye twinkling up at him. He looked up with a frown and Laura Dracwyn reflected his expression.

'This is taken,' she said to him patronisingly, her purple eyes hard like the stone in her ring.

Both looked at each other a moment, not budging an inch.

'Good, you will need to pay extra attention anyways. This class maybe too advanced for you,' Jungkook said, returning the hatred.

'No one cares what you think Jeon. Why don't you scurry off somewhere else?' Laura snapped.

Mcgonagall looked up at them through her spectacles.

'If the squabbling is done I suggest everyone takes their seats,' she said to both of them.

Jungkook's friend and fellow prefect Sierra called him from a seat behind them. 'Kookie, there's a seat here,'

Jungkook gave a last glare to Laura and moved back. Laura haughtily pulled her seat and sat in it.

'Don't let her ruin your mood Kookie!' Sierra said to him, trying to lighten him up, looking at him with big green eyes, hoping to provide some consolation as Jungkook opened his textbook with a thud, thoroughly disgruntled.

Professor Mcgonagall stood up and pulled back her sleeves slightly. 'The Transfiguration you all have learned so far, was cakewalk compared to what you will learn in these 2 years. Do you know the 2 most complex types of Transfigurations?'

'Conjuration and Human Transfiguration,' Laura stated from the front.

'Correct. But some conjuration spells have already been taught to you, like Aguamenti,' she said, waving her wand and conjuring a wave of water into the air which then disappears. 'And Incendio' she said, and tongues of flames shoot up in the air and diffused. 'But why do you think Conjuration of other objects is difficult?'

Laura opened her mouth but Jungkook made sure to speak before her.

'The details are what make it difficult,' Jungkook said. 'When conjuring an object with a specific form and design, one needs to pay attention to detail. Water and fire are more free flowing and easy for our minds to visualise.'

'Yes that's precisely why. 10 points to Ravenclaw,' Mcgonagall said, making the Ravenclaws happy and Laura grind her teeth in silence. 'The first few conjuring trials fail for many due to these reasons. In order to perform a successful conjuration, you need to tap into your subconscious,' Mcgonagall explained.

Jungkook watched Laura take notes furiously at the front. He and Laura had never liked each other from the start, because Jungkook broke Slytherin's winning streak in his 2nd year, outshining Laura as the best student, loved by the entire school. Since then, they had been extremely competitive, their prime goal- defeating the other. Seeing how Slytherins treated half-bloods like himself and his muggle born friends, Jungkook took this up as an opportunity to defeat the entire Slytherin house, especially since that incident in their fourth year...

Kim Taehyung, Jungkook's best friend had become a target of the Slytherin bullies from his first year itself, all because he refused to care about the built up hierarchy among the students. And one of these incidents went too far. The Slytherin boys- Derreck and Jeffrey lured Taehyung all the way to the Shrieking Shack and were planning to lock him up there. And everyone knew if there were screams and noises coming from the most haunted spot in Hogsmeade, no one would risk their lives to check on it. Jungkook had rushed out to save him (having been informed by Jimin) and came to see the usual bullies, along with Laura at the Shrieking Shack. He still remembered that night fresh in his mind.

2 Years Ago-

Jungkook ran silently, out into the cold night of the castle grounds. He saw Laura, Jeffrey and Derreck standing outside the shack with a shaking Taehyung next to them.

'Let him go right now!' Jungkook growled. Laura stepped forward, between him and her two juniors, her face cool as the night breeze.

'Nothing's happened to him, you need to relax,' she said to the furious Jungkook.

'What the fuck do you guys think you are doing?' Jungkook said spitefully, stepping in between Taehyung and the rest, trying to shield him. 'If you think you are going to get away with this-'

'Jungkook... don't. Let's go,' Taehyung said in a small voice, hand pulling at his arm.

'I am not letting this go. You are a fool if you think I won't take this to the Professors,' Jungkook said.

'And what will you say? Listen to the boy and let it go,' Laura repeated. 'Nothing's happened to him. He was not even locked in. You will do as he says if you don't want to get hurt.' She stepped closer to Jungkook, her wand ready.

'Jungkook please, just trust me and let's leave,' Taehyung repeated a bit more firmly now. I am alright, nothing's happened to me.'

Jungkook was confused. He didn't understand why Taehyung was this persistent to leave. Nonetheless he decided to listen to him and backed away, his angry eyes piercing into Laura's.

When they entered the castle, Jungkook needed his answers.

'You will tell me exactly what happened,' he said to the younger boy.

Taehyung looked at him, 'Those Slytherin boys... as a joke they called me to the Shrieking Shack. But nothing happened, so don't worry. It was a silly joke,'

But Jungkook wasn't convinced. 'What was Laura doing there?'

'She... she just wanted us all to go back because it's not really safe. That's all,' Taehyung said nervously.

'Are you telling me the truth?' Jungkook asked, looking at him straight in the eye.

'Why would I lie to you! No one did anything to me, stop worrying!' Taehyung tried to laugh it out. 'Now let me go and get some sleep or I'll be dozing off in every class tomorrow!' and he went his way towards the Hufflepuff dorms. Either Taehyung was actually telling the truth or he was petrified of Laura and wanted to keep his mouth shut. Jungkook waited in the corridor once Taehyung had left. He wasn't going to let this go and as soon as he saw Laura enter through the secret passageway, he blocked her path.

'Move Jeon,' she said curtly, not bothering to look at him.

'The next time, if I ever see any Slytherin putting Taehyung in danger, I swear I will get the whole lot suspended,' he warned her. 'I knew all Slytherins were arrogant pricks but to be honest I didn't think you were someone who also enjoys seeing the misery of someone else.'

He seemed to have finally struck something deep below her stone cold facade because Laura evidently looked bothered, even a little hurt as she looked at him directly. 'You don't know me Jeon. So be careful of what you say,' she said. Jungkook was slightly taken aback but maintained his cold expression.

Laura stepped to the side and walked away, saying one last thing. 'Isn't it so typical of you all, to judge Slytherins all the time?'

Jungkook stood there a while, feeling conflicted. He was in the right wasn't he? But why wasn't his heart feeling sure of it?

Jungkook was brought back to the present by Mcgonagall's voice as she spoke the incantation.

'Lepidoptera' Mcgonagall waved her arms in an arch and a black rabbit bounced out of thin air. The students awed at it.

'Kookie!' Seirra exclaimed as the rabbit came closer to them, 'The bunny looks like you,'

'Does it? It's cute then isn't it?'Jungkook crunched his nose, puffed his cheeks and wiggled his lips, imitating a rabbit. Sierra and his other friends laughed out.

'Show off...' Laura muttered, rolling her eyes.

The rabbit hopped around Mcgonagall and then jumped out of the window.

'Professor, will these be real rabbits? Like actual living, breathing creatures?' Sierra asked.

'No. Only nature has power to bring forth true life forms into the world. For all the magic we have within us, we can never come close to the magic in nature. The living creatures we conjure, are what we call hollow lives. They diminish and diffuse once our attention is moved away from sustaining the spell. So whatever you conjure, especially at beginner level, may not survive beyond a few minutes,' Mcgonagall explained. 'Ok, is everyone ready? Visualise your rabbit and cast the spell. Lepidoptera.'

Everyone started swishing their wands and saying the incantation. No one was able to conjure anything at all.

'You all are not concentrating well. You are senior students now, step up to it,' Mcgonagall said.

Laura's eyebrows were narrowed in concentration.

'Cmon, you gotta do this properly,' she thought to herself. 'Lepidoptera' she swished her wand in arches for the 4th time. A fluffy white rabbit appeared and disappeared quickly. 'Ugh!' She threw her head back in frustration. Around her people were conjuring lifeless cotton balls or morbid hybrids. Every lesson in their 6th year had suddenly become so complex, all of them felt helpless.

Laura tried the spell again and the same thing happened. She heard some students awe behind her and turned to see a dark grey rabbit jumping onto the floor from Jungkook's wand. Jungkook was looking at his conjuration with sparkling brown eyes. People around him clapped. But the rabbit disappeared after two hops.

'Don't worry, I can do this, let's get it,' he bit his lower lip and cast the spell again. Laura snapped back to the front in anger. She took some deep breaths and lifted her wand again when she felt something at her foot.

Looking down, she saw Jungkook's rabbit nuzzling at her ankle. She stepped back to move away from it but the bunny hopped towards her and rubbed its face on her leg. She tried moving away again but the bunny followed her and didn't let go. Jungkook came and awkwardly stood in front of her, looking at his bunny, not sure how to call it back to him.

'I need him back,' he said, clearly uncomfortable to be having this conversation with her.

'Take it. I don't want your bunny,' Laura said, stepping back again.

Jungkook bent down to grab it but it again hopped to Laura and hid behind her legs, in the folds of her cloak.

'Looks like your own creature doesn't like you,' Laura scoffed.

'At least I conjured one,' he said to her.

Laura breathed sharply through her nose. She bent down and carefully, delicately held the rabbit to pick it up. It wiggled its muzzle the same way Jungkook had done when he imitated the bunny. Jungkook could see a hint of a smile on Laura's face as she looked at it. He had never seen her smile before. But the smile disappeared soon.

'Here, keep your bunny to yourself,' Jungkook took it but the rabbit instantly jumped down to the floor. Jungkook sighed and turned to leave.

'I didn't know rabbits have purple eyes,' Laura said. Jungkook turned looking confused.

'Your grey rabbit has purple eyes. Grey rabbits have blue or brown eyes. You haven't been paying attention to details have you,' she said and turned away from him to practice her spell, hands gracefully lifting up to move her wand.

After class, it was time for the Slytherin tryouts and the team was gathered on the quidditch pitch. Yoongi looked up at the clear blue sky. Good day for tryouts. He looked down and was met with the smiling face of his roommate. 'Huh! This is new!' Yoongi said seeing Jimin at the tryouts.

'Captain! We have everything ready,' Terrance said to Ash while gesturing to the case with all the quidditch equipment.

'That's great,' she replied smiling. 'Gather around team,' Ash said getting everyone to form a circle. 'Tryouts are a little bit different this time,'

Ash Vorhart was the first female Slytherin captain in the last three decades. Many considered her the key player to help them win the Quidditch cup in her third year, a victory they achieved after two years of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw beating them at it. The next year was a neck to neck competition between the houses with each house just a point or two away from each other. Hufflepuff had won, because of Jung Hoseok. That guy was something else on a quidditch field.

'We need one chaser and one beater. We are going to eliminate them in three rounds. Round 1 will be the speed test,' Ash said to all of them.

'Okay everyone line up here,' Yoongi called out.

Being in Yoongi's presence automatically intimidated everyone. They immediately formed a line, broom in hand. The first round consisted of speed.

'The route is through the castle grounds. Watch out for the Whomping Willow. At the gardens you will spot the flags that you must pick up and bring back on your route. Terrance will be following you guys to make sure you are all on the path. You have 2 minutes. The race starts when Ash blows the whistle. Understood?' Yoongi looked around and saw everyone nodding their heads.

'Ready...and...'

Ash blew the whistle.

The players took off on their brooms in loud swishes.

'Isn't two minutes too tight for tryouts?" Ash heard Montague, the Slytherin beater asking her.

'If they can't rise up to the challenge they don't need to be on this team,' She replied looking ahead.

The 1 minute and 45 second mark was coming up. They could see 3 flyers come in, Jimin among them. Shortly, seven of them landed within seconds of each other, a little out of breath.

'Hey there wasn't a flag for me,' the last flyer said.

'You obviously weren't fast enough,' Monatgue smirked.

'You three, out,' Yoongi said. Those three flyers walked out of the grounds.

The next round was the flying test, where the players had to fly through the 3 hoops on either end, upside down.

Three players each did the course in 3 rounds. One puked right after finishing the three loops and another fainted after finishing the round.

'Someone take him to the infirmary,' Ash said sighing while she told the next four to take their positions.

Ash and Yoongi were quite surprised to see that Jimin, who had previously never shown interest in playing Quidditch did very well on the flying test. It almost looked graceful when he did the three loops, with the wind running through his silky black hair.

'Congratulations to the four of you for making it to the final round,' Ash said. The final selection was by a 20 minute match where the contenders would switch positions halfway.

The game started off well, the four players were good. Jimin was doing very well. His first position was as a beater. But after a couple of minutes, whenever his ball hit someone, he would not stop apologizing.

After the 10-minute mark was up, Ash blew the whistle and everyone took a water break.

'Hey Jimin, you don't have to apologize every time the Bludger hits someone. It's the game. Everyone knows it will happen,' Yoongi said while walking upto Jimin.

'Yes I know that. But I still feel so bad. Bludgers hurt alot!' Jimin replied while drinking his water.

'Part of the game,' Yoongi said. 'You need to put that all aside and play without emotions clouding your head. Listen, I've been watching and you have good speed and maneuverability. Don't let that go to waste. If you want to make the team, remember what's important.'

Jimin stared at Yoongi for a while. He never thought 'the Min Yoongi' would actually give him advice.

'What? Why are you looking at me like that?' Yoongi asked with a small scowl and went his way to get some water.

'Okay everyone take your positions,' Ash said while alighting her broomstick.

The contenders switched positions and now Jimin was a chaser. He kept Yoongi's advice and put his head in the game. This was a competition.

Ash was already choosing her Chaser while the game was going on. Jimin was fierce this time. He was very agile and most important of all, he was a team player and that is exactly what was missing in the Slytherin team. His throws were nearly perfect too. He even managed quite a few of them past the teams' Keeper who was Yoongi. And Yoongi was a very good Keeper.

Ash once again blew the whistle and the game was over. Everyone flew to the ground.

'Good game everyone. I will post the ones who have made it to the team in the common room tomorrow morning. You are all dismissed now,' Ash said while getting off her broom.

Yoongi walked with her towards the benches, 'Ash what do you think? I think I'm very sure on the new Chaser. Jimin was quite good,'

'Yeah I agree,' Ash nodded.

She watched their new chaser walk to the stands to grab a bottle of water. He was all sweaty from the tryouts and removed his outer robe, pushing his hair back and splashing some water on to his face.

Woah...

Ash stopped dead in her tracks. She could never imagine Jimin to have this aura about him. His cheeks were flushed pink and he was panting slightly. His sleeveless undershirt showed his muscular arms and a strong, well built torso.

Is this really the same old Jimin?

'Ash, you okay?' Yoongi asked her.

'Huh what,' she snapped back, turning her head to where she thought Yoongi's voice came from.

'You were staring into nothing,' he said to her.

'I... I was just re-assessing the performances of the players in my head,' she said. 'Ok, I'm to go get changed now. See you at dinner,' For the past 5 years both she and Jimin had not paid any attention to each other. But why was he suddenly everywhere? Ash's mind was still not able to comprehend it. With the ferocity he showed later in the game, it looked like there were more sides to him than what they all saw.

When she came out of the changing room, the sun had set. She made her way to the Slytherin dorms and she heard the shuffling of feet. The sound was coming from the fork in the corridor which had always been empty, because it led to a dead end. She peered around to see where the noise came from and she heard a soft clatter like porcelain and steel.

That's odd.. she thought. If there were students around, why would they be carrying utensils?

She walked towards the sound and heard some whispers.

'I told you to be quiet!' It was a girl's voice.

'There's no one here. Relax,' said a guy.

If this was a couple she'd rather not walk in.

'Hurry up, they're waiting. They haven't eaten in 2 days, don't test their patience,' said the girl.

This piqued Ash's interest. She didn't expect to hear something like that at all. She heard bricks move and feet shuffle again. She went towards the sound to see what was happening. Two figures dressed in the black school robes went into a passageway which opened from a wall. Ash wasn't too sure about following them. What if it put her in danger? So she creeped to the sides of the opening and peered inside. She saw a few people dressed in black just as the bricks closed up again. And these people did not look like students.

Ash stared wide eyed into the blank brick wall beyond which strangers stood, hidden from the whole castle. Her heart started to race in fear. What in the world is happening...


	5. 5 Sparks

**5\. Sparks**

Ash ran through the dark corridors with silent footsteps.

 _Who can they be? Who should I tell about this? Will anyone believe me?_

Thoughts ran in her head as she felt her heartbeat thump through her body. Just outside the Slytherin dorms she bumped into Yoongi.

'Woah, Ash! Careful!' he caught her by the arms and tried to hold his balance as well.

'Sorry.. I…' she was lost for words, her mouth felt as dry as sand.

'What happened? You don't seem alright? Why are you so shook?'

'I was walking towards the dorms… You know that deserted corridor that leads to a fork?' she pointed to the path behind her. 'I… I heard two people talking there. Which I found rather odd. That place is always deserted. And when I followed them, I saw them disappear into a hidden room.. and inside were people, they didn't look like students,' Ash said, her words falling out rapidly. Yoongi's lilac eyes widened with each sentence.

'Come with me,' he said and took her by the elbow into the common room where Laura was. Laura looked horrified as Ash retold what she had witnessed., eyes widening with every word.

'We should tell Snape,' was Laura's first response.

'Tell Snape? If it turns out to be a hoax, he's going to have my head off!' Ash said. 'I just saw something for half a second. And you know how weird this castle is,'

'Then let's go check it out for ourselves first,' Yoongi said and Laura nodded in agreement.

The three crept their way to the hidden room. They tapped around the bricks to find the opening.

'Do you think it's like Diagon Alley?' Laura asked in a whisper.

Yoongi tapped the bricks in the diagonal pattern like they did for the entrance of Diagon Alley but nothing happened.

'Maybe it's a brick that gets pushed in and opens it,' Laura whispered. 'Woah, here!' she said, pushing a brick in.

They held their wands tightly in their hands and hid themselves as the bricks separated. Slowly, they peered, only to find a dark room, vacant of people. It looked utterly unused, with dust covered broken furniture, candles melted to a solid puddle with small black wicks standing on them and a huge broken mirror. There was no soul in sight.

'Aparecium,' Yoongi whispered the revealing charm and moved his wand over the space but nothing stirred or changed.

'Ash, was it this room for sure?' Laura asked her.

'I am absolutely positive about the location. But when I had peered in, this room was lit up. I remember seeing this broken mirror in the background of all the people. But right now… it's as if no one stepped in here in ages!' she said, pacing the room.

'I don't mean to doubt you,' Yoongi said. 'I know how sound minded you are. But this castle does have weird shit happening all the time. People see things every now and then with the ghosts moving around and paintings leaving their places,' Yoongi said as he turned over some abandoned silverware.

'Yeah… I don't blame you,' Ash nodded. 'I wouldn't believe it if this is what I came to find either. C'mon. Let's leave then. This place is giving me the creeps,'

They headed back to their dorms. Everyone was still in a half mind whether to tell Snape about this or not. Laura and Yoongi had already too much going on with Snape involved. The professor still held every action of their's with caution after the mess created with Kim Taehyung and Gwen Osburne. Yoongi let Ash walk ahead and he tugged Laura to stop and speak to him.

'What do you think?' Yoongi asked her.

'I'm not sure. And you said you overheard Pomfrey say Hoseok was not splinched?'

'Yeah, and Dumbledore visited him. Why would the Headmaster go see a student for ordinary splinching?'

'Does make one think,' Laura said and her hand touched a spot on her chest near her heart, wincing in pain.

'It's not healed yet?' Yoongi asked her about the dark spell she was hit with during the fight with Gwen in the dungeons, a spell that could've killed her by now if it wasn't for Snape's healing potions.

'No… Snape said a curse like this takes a while. Whoever taught that bitch this spell…'

'Gwen must have spent Christmas with the Lestranges,' Yoongi said.

Next day, the classes ended early for the 6th years. In the late afternoon they were lazing in the common room which was ten times cooler in temperature than any other part of the whole castle and they were so thankful for it. They felt relaxed in the cool green light. Ash was strategizing for their next game and Jimin came to her with curious eyes.

'Are you making plans for the upcoming match?' He asked her, peering over the notebook on which she was making rough position plans.

'Well you are not supposed to look at them yet,' she said to him, pulling the notebook out of his sight.

'Why not? I'm in the team now!' Jimin said.

'But I can't be personally discuss things with you, when the rest of the team isn't here. You will see all this in the team meeting tomorrow,'

'Ok fine,' he said pouting and sat across her on the table. Ash chuckled behind her book seeing his sad puppy face.

A student came in, holding something in hand 'Min Yoongi, Laura Dracwyn,' he said, handing the envelope, 'this is from Professor Roland.'

Professor Roland was their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, joined midway last year. He was also a former Slytherin student, though he was much more social than Snape.

Yoongi took the envelope, and opened it.

'What is it?' Laura asked.

'It's an invitation. He is starting a duel club,' he replied, his eyes scanning the letter. 'He's invited anyone of you who's interested. The first meet up is in the evening today at 6,'

'Anyone who's interested?' Jimin asked. He wondered if he was counted in that.

'He's written 'the Slytherin prefects and their friends are most welcome to join'. So I guess he means you guys,' he said, looking at the people around him, including his roommate and Jimin's lips slightly pulled up in a smile.

Jin and Namjoon were walking on the ground floor corridor after class. The Head Girl walked towards them hurriedly, her auburn hair looking golden in the evening sunlight. She had a memo in hand for Namjoon.

'Joon, McGonagall wants this put up in all common rooms,' she said, handing him the piece of parchment.

'Well hello to you too Emina,' Jin said from the side. The Head girl rolled her big, round eyes that matched the shade of her hair.

'Jin we just spent the entire day together in class. Do I have to greet you every time I see you?'

'Of course you do, I'm the prince aren't I?' Jin bopped her nose.

'Jin I swear to god-' Emina lunged forward to grab him in a chokehold but Namjoon pulled them away from each other.

'You two are seventh years!' the Head boy said disbelievingly. 'Can you act like that for at least one day?'

They were distracted from their chatter when a group of 4 older witches and wizards passed by them, accompanied by Filch who was leading them out. They wore the emblem of the Ministry on their cloaks. The trio looked behind the corridor from where they had walked out and saw their Alchemy teacher with Dumbledore. The teacher looked stressed and Dumbledore was trying to reassure him and left after a pat on his back.

'What's happening with Professor Hohen?' Namjoon wondered.

'Let's go check?' Emina said.

The three seniors walked towards Hohen hurriedly. The Alchemy professor was one of their favourite teachers at Hogwarts. He was a friendly, humble and helpful teacher, extremely skilled and never considering a question to be wrong or foolish.

'Professor Hohen?' Namjoon called him, 'Is everything ok?'

'Oh!' Hohen's golden eyes twinkled when he looked his favourite students, 'Good to see you all again,' he smiled.

'Good to see you too professor,' Emina smiled. 'Did those Ministry officials come here to see you?'

Hohen's expression turned somewhat sullen as he nodded.

'But why? Is there something wrong? If you don't mind telling us,' Jin asked.

'It's the usual fight every year,' Hohen said, tying up his long golden hair into a pony as he ushered them into his office. 'Every year, I try to get better textbooks for you all… with deeper alchemic knowledge. But they don't allow it, because of their strong control over alchemic teachings,'

'Why would they want to control that? What harm can alchemy do?' Namjoon asked.

Hohen just smiled. 'That's what they don't want you to know. Dumbledore tries to support me, being an alchemist himself… but they are quite adamant to stick to what I've been teaching you all since the time I joined, and not a word more. But I see so much potential in some of you… it's such a waste, all because of them,' Hohen shook his head.

'But… what's the reason they want to hinder alchemic learning?' Jin asked.

Hohen shook his head, 'I can't discuss this with you. It's a Ministry matter,'

Jin asked, 'Does it have anything to do with the study of immortality?'

Hohen looked at him disbelievingly and then spoke after a moment, 'I think it's best if you all head to your dorms now,'

Hohen's lack of denial was enough. Jin nodded and they left the professor's office.

'How did you know?' Namjoon asked Jin.

'You know... how I know things,' Jin glanced at Namjoon and continued walking.

Outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the invited students from 4th to 7th year of all houses were lining up . Once the chamber was reasonably filled up, Professor Roland entered, pulling black robes over a deep green coat. His grey eyes scanned the variety of students assembled before him, and he smiled at them.

'Welcome all of you! Oh this is going to be a fun evening,' he rubbed his hands together. 'I thought this was an important skill that the senior students should learn. We spend too much time studying facts in books. In real life, if someone or something comes at you, what are you going to do? Recite chapters from your books?' He laughed and some students laughed with him. 'Well, we have to do our bit for the exams too. But here, let's get our bodies moving and our minds active. I want all of you to divide yourselves into 2 equal groups,'

The students shuffled and formed two groups. The Slytherins as usual stuck together.

Jimin saw Jungkook among the students and waved at him, 'Ah, Kookie! You are here too!'

'Mr. Jimin! I didn't think you'd be here!' Jungkook came towards them. 'Heard you made it to the Quidditch team!' He pretended to not notice Laura and went ahead to hug Jimin.

Jimin went ahead to receive the congratulatory hug. By the time he turned back, he realised he had put himself into the other group. Laura face palmed herself.

'This boy... I thought he'll be in our team for a change. You sure he'll be playing for Slytherin at the Quidditch match?' She jokingly asked Ash.

Jimin was looking at them from the other side, a serious expression on his face. But Jungkook had a possessive arm around him, busy talking to him. Jimin looked like he was torn between the two with an adorably confused face.

'Alright, let me demonstrate how a duel happens. Namjoon, why don't you be my partner,' Roland called the Head Boy to the front.

Namjoon walked from his group and stood in the middle of the room, facing the tall and lean Roland. Their Defence professor cut a remarkable figure despite his greying hair. The furniture had been pushed to one side to give all the space to the students. The evening sunlight drained in from the tall arched windows lining one side of the room. 'Ready when you are Professor,' the Gryffindor said.

Namjoon and Roland bowed to each other. They held their wands at the ready and turned around, walking ten paces and then Namjoon turned with the first basic spell.

'Expelliarmus!' Namjoon hit the spell in Roland's direction but the teacher blocked him swiftly and shot a spell in return.

'Confrigo!' An orange light shot from Roland's wand but Namjoon ducked. It hit the stone floor, causing a spark.

Both fired a few more rounds of shots. The audience watched them in awe as both danced around with lights and sparks shooting in the air.

'Stupefy!' Roland shot but Namjoon's protective shield was strong. Namjoon moved forward.

'Expulso!' His hex hit Roland in the leg. Roland staggered and Namjoon prepared his stance for the disarming spell. But suddenly he saw a flash of red light from Roland's wand.

'Expelliarmus!' Roland said firmly. Namjoon's wand flew out of his hand and Roland caught it.

The audience clapped excitedly. Roland gave the wand back to Namjoon, both student and professor bowed to each other.

'Kim Namjoon just gave us the perfect example of a duel. Now, each one of you will take turns. Once a person beats the other, a replacement will come from that group to continue. Let's see which team wins,' Roland said, walking to one side of the room. 'And remember,' he his voice turned deep, 'These are friendly duels. I will not have dangerous curses bouncing out of anyone's wands or there will be dire consequences. Do you all understand?'

Everyone knew by now not to take Roland's words for granted. He may be amiable but he was formidable at the same time. His one sharp look was enough to instil some fear in everyone.

The first person from the other team stepped forward. It was the Head Girl, Emina Carter. Her long auburn braid swayed as she moved.

Seeing his friend, Jin jumped forward. 'Namjoon, don't worry. I will protect the Gryffindor pride!' he announced confidently. There was a noticeable flutter among everyone.

'Emina! Attack his face!' Jungkook called out to his senior.

'Hey Kookie! Don't give her ideas!' Jin protectively held his precious face.

'Don't worry grandpa,' Emina smiled. 'I don't have the heart to do any harm to that face,'

'Ok, wands at the ready!' Roland announced.

Both Emina and Jin took their positions and were ready to strike.

'Stupefy!' Jin shot out a red spark. Emina missed it by inches as the red beam whizzed by her cheek, leaving a burning sensation. She shot her own attack as she slid to the side.

'Confrigo!' She shot and it hit the floor near Jin's foot, causing sparks. Jin jumped in fear and made a run to a safer place.

'Engorgio!' Emina shot at his feet which grew big like an ape's foot and Jin tumbled.

'My feet! What did you do!' Jin cried. Emina burst out laughing.

'Reducio!' He cast the reducing spell at his feet and while his feet were going back to normal, he shot an unaware Emina who was still laughing over his ape feet.

'Stupefy!'

It hit her and she went tumbling away a few feet. She stood up, brushed her auburn hair out of her face and shot him again.

They went on for a while, blasting objects out of their way. Jin was as usual loud and animated with his attacks. Finally he did something unexpected.

'Rictumsempra!' he whispered. It was the tickling curse which had no beam. Emina fell on the floor, grabbing her stomach and trying not to let the tickle affect her.

'Expelliarmus!' And her wand was in Jin's hand as she still clutched to her stomach, trying not to laugh but failing at it miserably.

'Well done Seokjin!' Roland exclaimed. 'You see, it's not always the actual attack curses that can be used against your opponent. Various hexes and charms will help you, especially the sneaky innocent ones which no one is expecting. So who's going to defeat Jin?'

Jungkook pushed Jimin forward and he shyly took his wand out.

'Ah it's Jimin! This is going to be fun!' Jin exclaimed happily, seeing his friend.

They took their positions and Jin fired 'Expelliarmus', which Jimin effectively blocked.

'Rhopalocera!' Jin said, swinging his wand gracefully and a rainbow of colors swirled around Jimin, forming a hundred little butterflies.

'Oh no! Jin! Why you do this!' Jimin exclaimed in fear, frantically trying to shoo them away with swishes off his wand. Jin laughed seeing Jimin so worked up over a few flying insects.

A fifth year Gryffindor came in and went to Professor Roland.

'Professor Mcgonagall has asked for you,' the student said to him.

'Right now? I'm in the middle of something,' Roland replied.

'It's quite urgent. Most of the Professors have gathered with her,' the student said.

'Well alright,' Roland said to him and turned to face the class.

'I have to attend to something. I think you all can keep it going,' he said looking at a scared Jimin trying to shoo the butterflies away. 'Head Girl and Boy, I leave you both in charge,' he said and left.

Jimin ran towards Jin while the butterflies chased him. He turned around sharply and yelled 'INCENDIO!' and long tongues of flame shot from his wand, flashing the room in a bright light and turning the butterflies to ashes.

'Woaaaaah' all the students exclaimed in amazement.

'Not bad,' Yoongi said. 'He will defeat Jin for sure. You going after him?' He asked Laura.

'Nah... only the Head Boy would give me a good fight. These people are playing with butterflies,' Laura replied.

'You killed my pretty butterflies!' Jin yelled at Jimin, fists clenched.

'I shouldn't have told you about the butterflies!' Jimin yelled back, regretting that he shared his phobia with his friends. Both looked like they were playing chaotically more than duelling with each other.

The duels went on for a while with students taking turns. Things seemed to be going so smoothly that Yoongi slept out of boredom, sitting against a wall. Laura pulled out a book and started to flip through it.

'I thought this would be entertaining,' she said, lazily gazing at the pages. After a while, there was some noise from the frontline with students moving back.

'Something's happening,' Ash said, moving forward to see.

'Well finally,' Laura shut her book and went ahead to check out the situation. The one duelling from their team was Jeffrey, the fourth year Slytherin bully. The one fighting him was Jeon Jungkook. And this didn't seem like a friendly duel anymore. She saw Taehyung standing on the opposite team's side, with a little pained expression. His hair was disheveled and he seemed to be clutching his right palm as if it hurt. Laura guessed that he had just been defeated by Jeffrey in an unkindly manner. Jungkook looked very angry. He was shooting Jeffrey with quick attack spells. Jeffrey ducked some and shot more.

'Ignis Inferni!' Jeffrey shot green flames from his wand. He seemed to be moving on from the harmless hexes to darker curses.

'Protego!' Jungkook cast a strong protection spell. To his fortune, Jeffrey was still not as strong as him and he could block his dark spell. Jungkook released an attack hex as he swirled. 'Confrigo!'

It hit Jeffrey on the chest and he fell, clutching it. Jungkook shot another hex aggressively, whipping his wand in force. It rendered Jeffrey unable to recover for a counter attack. The students of other houses were cheering Jungkook. Jungkook took position for the final spell to defeat him.

'Expelliarmus,' a beam shot at Jungkook's wand but it wasn't Jeffrey who casted it. Jungkook was taken aback. The Ravenclaw's wand almost flew out of his hand but he caught it just in in time.

'Why don't you fight someone your own size?' Laura called out from the crowd, moving forward to take Jeffrey's place, her wand in hand. Then she turned to Jeffrey and growled in a low voice, 'Get your stupid arse back in line. You shouldn't have tried this in the first place.' He slowly stood up and limped to the back of the class, face red and puffed.

'Why am I not surprised,' Jungkook mockinged her, pacing the circle with her. 'Of course you would come to the aid of a fellow serpent.'

'You showed off enough against a junior. Let us see if you've really got something,' Laura said, an eyebrow raised.

Jungkook gave a half smile and turned to walk back. In those 5 seconds he realised he'll have to bring in his A-game. Laura was the best dueller in their year. With a swirl as quick as lightning, he shot her.

'Stupefy!'

'Protego,' the block came from Laura as soon as the hex had left Jungkook's lips. And the red beam deflected to the roof.

Jungkook and Laura walked a few paces, eyes fiercely locked into each other. The tension in the classroom had everyone in knots, everyone gaping at them. It was like an intense magnetic wave had run through the whole chamber.

'Confrigo,' Jungkook shot again.

'Protego,' it was almost effortless for Laura. 'C'mon. At least get me moving,' she mocked him.

'Are you just going to stand there blocking me or gonna do something yourself too?' Jungkook scoffed.

'You shouldn't have asked for that,' Laura said and in a split second, her stance turned dangerous.

'Diffindo,' she said. Hot pink beams shot from her wand. Jungkook dodged 2 of them but the third one cut through the back of his robe, tearing it in half.

'Expulso!' she shot again. It hit Jungkook on the right side of his chest and he fell back. The students gasped.

Jungkook hoisted himself up, pushing on the balls of his palms. His hair was ruffled. Laura had a smug smile on her face and Jungkook's anger was rising.

'Alright then,' he said, taking position again. 'Confundo!' he shot from his wand.

Vapours enveloped Laura's head for a moment. She blinked, her expression hazed from the confusing charm.

'Expelliarmus!' He shot at her but Laura's reflexes still worked, making her duck it. But she had lost her unbroken concentration in the duel.

'Confrigo!' Jungkook shot immediately and it hit Laura's chest, right where Gwen's curse had wounded her. Her knees hit the floor as she clutched her chest but she stopped herself from showing the pain. Yoongi stepped forward in concern but she shot him a glance, meaning for him to stay where he is. She couldn't lose to Jeon Jungkook.

'It's over now Dracwyn. Expelliarmus,' he said but his spell hit an invisible wall in front of Laura.

Jungkook looked astounded. He shot another hex. 'Stupefy!'

But again it got blocked. Everyone was shocked, looking around as to who was casting the defense charm. Laura stood up, facing him again.

'Saggito,' he swished his wand at her, shooting 3 arrows. Laura waved her wand across, making the arrows fall limp to the ground midway. But her lips hadn't moved. Jungkook looked at her taken aback. Her purple eyes were burning into his. Was this the _Dracwyn_ power they spoke of?

'Laura can cast spells without speaking the incantation?' Ash asked Yoongi, surprised at what she was seeing. Only experienced wizards could do that, and they were still students.

'That idiot made her mad. Hope he makes it out in one piece now,' Yoongi smirked, not too surprised.

'Expluso!' Jungkook shot, getting frantic.

'Incendio!' Laura shot a beam which met his, forming a continuous beam of light, from one wand to another. Everyone stared with their mouths hung open. The blue beam from Jungkook was fighting against the red beam from Laura's. Both pushed at each other, as Laura's and Jungkook's wand hands shook with the tremors of the force.

'What do we do?' Emina took her wand out. 'This is beyond a classroom duel now!' Namjoon took his wand out too, ready to intervene. He had never seen this happen before. He was shocked to see Jungkook get this aggressive.

Jungkook's blue beam was winning. Laura yelled, taking her hand in the upward direction. The beam dug through the stones on the roof and disconnected. Rubble started to fall down on all of them.

'Protect the students!' Namjoon yelled. He and Emina cast a protective shield around the two groups.

In between the dust and rubble, Jungkook glimpsed Laura's wand hand, like it was preparing to shoot at him again and he moved quickly. Both stood, arms pressed against one another, wands almost touching the other's cheek. But their eyes were still unwavering.

In a snap both felt their wands flew out of their hands. They looked to their side to find a fuming Professor Mcgonagall, holding their wands in her palm. And at that moment, they knew they had fucked up really bad. She glared at them so hard like she would murder them with her eyes.

'Is this a school or a battlefield?' her sharp voice rang through the silent room. 'Answer me!' she yelled at the two of them. Laura looked away and Jungkook looked down, both feeling uneasy about making their favourite teacher angry.

'Is this how a student behaves? Let alone two prefects!' she continued. No one had ever seen Mcgonagall in such rage before. 'I should have your badges back and both of you suspended!'

Laura and Jungkook looked at her with alarmed eyes. Under no circumstances did Jungkook want to get suspended and Laura would never ever want to give up her prefect position.

'Both of you will have a meeting with Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape. And they will decide what is to be done. You can retrieve your wands from them when you meet them.' With that she walked out of the room angrily, her shoes clanking on the stone floor.

There was a moment's silence throughout the chamber and all faces were blank with shock.

'THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!' Laura and Jungkook screamed at each other.


	6. 6 Black Blood

**6\. Black Blood**

'THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!' Laura and Jungkook screamed at each other.

'I am not the one who cracked half the ceiling!' Jungkook quipped.

'Oh, were you not?' Laura snapped back, 'Don't try to back out of stuff that you did!'

'You are the one who went all batshit crazy!'

'ENOUGH!' Namjoon's stern voice rang through the crumbling room. Laura looked from Jungkook to him with a raised eyebrow.

'Jungkook, you both just got berated by Mcgonagall. Don't continue the fight,' he said, only to Jungkook because he knew that speaking to an angry Slytherin does no good. Jungkook bit his lower lip and walked away hands balled into fists.

'Everyone disperse to your dormitories,' Emina said. 'We should let Roland know what happened,' she said to Namjoon and both headed to meet the professor. The Slytherins sullenly walked back to their dorms.

'She took my wand away. What is worse than that?' Laura muttered eyes narrowed.

'Getting expelled is worse than that,' Ash said looking over the rubble around the room. She brushed a stray piece of lint off her robes.

'Why did you jump in to fight him in the first place?'

'Because he was beating up Jeffrey's arse,' Laura replied, voice lowered.

Ash blinked at her roommate, 'From what I know, you guys don't really like Jeffrey. So why go after him for revenge?'

'It is not about us liking Jeffrey or not,' Laura said.

Ash still looked confused.

'Firstly, Jeffrey is my cousin. Secondly, it was stupid of him trying to defeat Jeon. Slytherins don't act like fools. Did he really think he had a chance with one of the top students of the school? If another house can insult one of our own with impunity, then we are no longer a house to be feared,'

Yoongi added, 'Jeon used Jeffrey to make our house look weak. Granted he's an idiot but he's still one of us. We as a house have to look out for each other no matter what. Do you think we don't know what they whisper behind our backs?' He looked toward a particular group that had been staring at them for a while. 'The looks they give us as we pass by? They call us black-blooded, minions of the Dark Lord. Do they know what happens when the Dark Lord is actually in front of you, pointing his wand at your family, forcing you to do his deeds?'

The look on Yoongi's face was dark as Laura placed a comforting hand on her cousin's shoulder. She stroked the locket on her neck absently, her eyes hard. And suddenly, Ash saw past their layers of pride and snobbery, the desolation behind the masks they wore.

Ash understood what they meant. Everyone else in the school only had heard only one side of the horror that Voldemort had brought to their world - the victim's side. No one regarded the situation of the families who were under Voldemort's evil reign.

'In the end, we are all each other has… the Dark Lord is gone. But his shadow will never leave Slytherins,' Laura said. 'They all think they are better than us. They are white as snow, aren't they? The other houses provided their fair share of death eaters as well, who _willingly_ went to the Dark Lord's side,'

The walk back to the Slytherin dormitories was quiet charged with emotion. Yoongi and Laura walked with their heads held high despite the turmoil inside them while Ash processed their words. Just as they reached the snake- encrusted door of their common room Laura slid off to see Snape, unnoticed by all except Yoongi who offered to go with her. Jungkook's hex hit her right at the curse mark on her chest, and it had started to burn again.

They knocked on the ebony door of Snape's chambers. He opened it an inch, looking at them suspiciously as always.

'What brings you here at this hour?' he asked his prefects.

'Its the mark,' Laura said to him. Snape opened the door wider to let them in.

Snape's room was oval. On either sides, the curved stone walls were lined with shelves full of potion ingredients in dark bottles. The opposite side from the door had a long narrow window tinted in green. In the middle was a round wooden table on which rested many old books, beakers and a teapot. Snape's chair was simple: made of ebony with a straight leather back and curved wooden armrest. He motioned Laura to sit on a brown longue chaise next to the door.

'A hex hit me there,' she said, so Snape could prepare his medication accordingly. 'The Confrigo hex' she added. Laura was familiar with the procedure. Snape went to fetch her medicines and potions while she undid the top half of her shirt. Snape returned with a tray. It had scalpel, cotton pads, dittany and a milky potion.

'Painless draught? Is this going to hurt?' Yoongi looked at the white potion with concern.

'It will. Prepare yourself,' Snape said flatly. Laura bit her lower lip and then took the potion, swinging it down in one go. Snape was ready with the scalpel.

'If it bleeds, you are in luck. It means your insides have finally started to heal,' he explained. Laura nodded and lay down on the chaise. Yoongi stood by her side, more worried than she was.

'Don't worry, I've had worse,' she tried to console her cousin.

Snape pressed the scalpel onto her flesh and cut across. Laura's body jerked forward in pain. She bit her lip and clutched the side of the chaise. But soon the sudden pain became bearable.

'It is bleeding just a little bit,' Snape said. 'Your body is starting to fight the decayed flesh, which is a good thing for you. The fact that you felt pain when the hex hit you at this spot means that your body has identified it as a weak spot and is trying to either expel the poison or heal the flesh,'

'What exactly was this curse Professor?' Yoongi asked.

'You are better off not knowing what it is,' Snape answered curtly.

'I'm suffering because of it,' Laura bit back, 'I think I deserve to know about it.'

Snape was silent for a moment and then he said, 'It is known as the Inclusum Mortem curse. It is a dark magic spell, so do not ask me the incantation for it. It causes an internal decay which spreads throughout your body, rotting each organ till it reaches your heart and stops it, killing you silently from the inside. The use of this curse is as grave as using any of the Unforgivable Curses. I do not know how and from whom Gwen Osburne could have learned this spell. Unless it was one of the death eaters who taught her.'

'I don't know if it was stupid or daring of her to use that curse on you,' Yoongi said to Laura.

'You really were in luck that she was not skilled at this,' Snape said, working deftly at the wound. 'It is advanced magic and I don't expect a 15 year old to cast this curse well enough to cause irreparable damage. But why did you get hit by a hex now? Surely you're not craving more fights after what happened in the dungeons,'

'It was a friendly duel. Professor Roland has started a duel club,'

Snape did not comment on it. He was happy staying out of his Slytherin colleague's social ventures.

'Professor… Can I ask you something?' Yoongi asked with a cautious tone.

'What?' asked Snape curtly.

'Why… why did you choose to help us over Gwen?' he asked.

Snape paused for a while.

'Your mother is a friend,' he looked at Yoongi, 'and Osburne broke the rules, not just of the school but broke a Wizarding Law,' he added, feeling uncomfortable about voicing his inner thoughts. 'It is my duty as a Hogwarts professor to stop students from disobeying the rules,'

'But you didn't report the situation to anyone, as a Hogwarts Professor,' Yoongi added.

Snape eyes snapped toward him sharply.

'I have saved you all from expulsion and you dare question me? You may be my friend's son but remember your place,' he growled. 'Children of two death eaters have gone against each other when all of us Slytherins need to live united. I did what I had to do to keep the peace,'

His rage was enough to shut their mouths for a while. Snape stood up hastily, taking the medicine tray back to the shelves. His black robes swayed with his swift precise movements. Suddenly, he stopped whatever he was doing and looked at them.

'The reason they tortured that Hufflepuff boy, Kim Taehyung, was just because of his Auror mother?' he asked with sinister, probing eyes.

Laura had a guarded expression on her face. 'Yes, that was it. They said it was vengeance for their family's humiliation. And the anger was especially against his mother, because she was the Auror who led all the capture missions, wasn't she?'

'There was nothing else to it?' Snape asked again.

'What else could it be? That boy doesn't cause any trouble to anyone. He's hesitant to even lift his wand at someone,' Laura said derisively.

Snape studied them and then returned to placing the items back to their respective places. He paused again.

'Speaking of wands, where's yours?' he asked her. Laura and Yoongi looked at each other rather guiltily. At that moment there was a knock on the door. Snape opened the door to find two memos floating in the air. He grabbed them; one was for him, the other for Laura.

It was dinner time and everyone was in the Great Hall. Namjoon scanned the hall to see where Jungkook had disappeared. He was nowhere to be found since the time he had walked out of Roland's class in anger.

'Emina have you seen Jungkook anywhere?' he asked the Head Girl. Emina scanned through the length of the Ravenclaw table.

'I don't think he came in to eat. His friends are here but he isn't. Are you going to talk to him? He is surely upset about what happened at Roland's,' she said.

'Yeah, that's why I'm looking for him,' Namjoon replied and set out to the castle grounds. He found him sitting on a rock overlooking the lake. He was throwing pebbles, trying to make it dribble over the water surface.

'What's your best count?' Namjoon asked sitting next to him.

'Nine,' Jungkook replied. His mood was still sour.

'Nine!? That's impossible. Let me try,' the head boy said, taking a pebble and throwing it. He ended up using too much force and it sank right in with a big sound.

'Be gentler! Like you want the pebble to slide,' Jungkook said. Namjoon tried again and failed. Jungkook shook his head chuckling.

'Why aren't you at dinner?' He asked Jungkook.

'Not hungry…' the younger replied, looking away. He pulled his knees to his chin and wrapped his arms around it.

'Don't worry too much about what happened today. Everyone knows you are a brilliant student. You are the golden boy of Hogwarts after all! They are going to let this pass,' Namjoon consoled him.

'It's not just that…' Jungkook said, restless on the grass. 'I made a mistake. I lost control over my emotions, put others in danger. How can I aspire to follow your footsteps if this is what I do?'

Namjoon started wide-eyed, 'Follow my footsteps?'

Jungkook's ears went red as he played with the rock in his hand, 'You inspired me to do better in whatever I did. Seeing you excel at everything and yet be so helpful and understanding to people, I always felt that's how I want to be one day. We are in different houses, yet I feel you were there for me, guiding me more than my own house seniors. I... I've looked up to you ever since my first year in this school. And to be honest, I was working towards being chosen as Head Boy after you… but what happened today may have taken that opportunity away from me…'

'Trust me, this incident today will not affect your future in the school. I will make sure of that. Do you trust me?' Namjoon asked him. Jungkook nodded slightly.

'But I've never seen you go out of control like that. What happened?'

'I… I don't know. Dracwyn gets me so angry. Her smug face… She's the epitome of Slytherin pride,' Jungkook replied.

At that moment, both saw a paper memo fly in and come towards them. Jungkook dropped the rock he had been fiddling with to grab the memo. His hands rough as he unfolded it impatiently.

'It's from Flitwick,' he said, scanning the contents. 'He's called me to the dungeons… well, we know why.' He crushed the paper in his palm and stood up. 'I better get going then.'

'Don't worry, it will be fine,' Namjoon said, giving him a soothing smile.

Jungkook had been called to the inventory dungeons. He thought that was an odd place to meet. He found the room and entered, finding Flitwick, Mcgonagall, Snape, and Laura standing there. The room was big and dingy. Dust mottled the shelves. The floor was covered in straw and there were a hundred rows of ingredients in barrels, vials, bottles, and mouldy boxes.

The 2 confisticated wands were kept on a table behind which the three professors stood. One was a slender whitewood wand of average length. The other was an ebony wand, long with depressions along the length of it like a stone.

'Is it really necessary for me to be here?' Snape said to his colleagues. He was least interested in whatever drama had brewed up.

'She is your prefect so I would say yes,' Mcgonagall said to him, lips pursed. She turned to the two students before her disapprovingly, 'You both know why you are here. Today's behaviour was just atrocious and unacceptable. You both are prefects, and you failed to show even a fraction of responsibility.'

'Jungkook this was least expected of you. I am so disappointed. If Minerva hadn't told me herself, I wouldn't even believe it!' Flitwick added.

'We can see it on their faces that they regret it,' Snape said. 'I am sure they can assure us it won't happen again. And Miss Dracwyn will surely act more responsibly from now on. So if we are done…' he started to leave.

'Not quite,' Mcgonagall said, halting Snape. He sighed and rolled his eyes. 'This matter is too much to just be put aside. A healthy competition is always good but this has gone far beyond that. They put nearly 50 students in danger and damaged school property!'

Snape curiously looked at Laura when Mcgonagall mentioned the damage done.

'That is indeed… grave,' he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

'And that is why, you both need to learn to get along. As students of Hogwarts!' Flitwick said, standing on his toes to impress this point of importance.

'What do you mean?' Laura asked with crossed arms.

'What we mean is, both of you will serve detention, together. Complete the tasks, together. And if the tasks are not done in time or if there is one more fight then both of you will hand over your prefect badges to us,' Mcgonagall said, her voice and eyes assertive.

'What? Why do we have to serve detention _together_? I'm ready to serve double detention alone,' Jungkook retorted.

'And that's precisely why you will do it together or lose your badge. It's time you two put your differences aside and learned how to work as a team. As student body heads, you should know how to cooperate. You both will learn to control, endure, and respect,' Mcgonagall said.

Laura tried to talk Mcgonagall out of it. 'This is not really necessary Professor. I can assure you something like this will never happen again-'

'This is not a negotiation. The 3 of us have made our decision,' Mcgonagall said. Laura looked at Snape as her last resort. He surely didn't think this detention was necessary? He would certainly support his students, like he always has.

'Yes, the decision is made.' Snape said and Laura was evidently appalled. 'I cannot have a student of mine behaving recklessly. At least you will remember this detention...the next time you are about to lose… self... control.' he said, enunciating the last few words clearly. Laura gulped. Now she knew why Snape was in favour of this detention. She had lost control once with Gwen. With Jungkook, the situation was about to get dangerous too.

'What is the detention?' Jungkook asked, expressionlessly, trying not to gnash his teeth together in frustration.

'Both of you have to clean this inventory, create new labels for each item and arrange them alphabetically,' Flitwick said.

Laura and Jungkook nodded their heads slightly. The task wasn't too bad. Yes the room was big and items were many, but with their skill in spells, it would be done in a few hours-

'Without magic.' Flitwick added with a knowing look. Both the students looked up in shock.

'You can't be serious?' Jungkook said exasperated. 'There are a thousand items here!'

'We are very serious. You will report to Professor Snape on Saturday evening 8 pm, in these chambers. You will hand over your wands to him and begin the task, which should be completed by Sunday morning.' Mcgonagall said. 'You will learn to be patient by doing these tasks by hand. And it will also spare me the tension of another death duel bursting out in these chambers,'

Laura looked like she wanted to run away and Jungkook's face seemed like he would punch through a wall in annoyance.

'Now take your wands and Professor Snape will see you on Saturday,' Flitwick said. Both the students stepped forward to take their wands, Laura snatching back her whitewood wand and Jungkook his ebony, stone-like wand. They stormed out of the chamber, maintaining as much distance from each other as possible, and went their separate ways.

'I didn't expect these two to be such a handful,' Flitwick said.

'Well, young minds often need to be reminded of the consequences of their actions,' Mcgonagall said as she watched them go.

In the other end of the castle, a group of students were gathered in an empty classroom. They were laughing at each other's jokes, eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and seeing the reaction on each other's faces. The group consisted of the Head boy and girl, their best friends - Jin and Hoseok along with Taehyung, Seirra the Ravenclaw prefect and a couple of other students.

'I know this is the wasabi flavour!' Emina exclaimed, carefully eyeing the green bean in Hoseok's hand.

'No, it's kiwi, _trust me_ ,' Taehyung said.

'Which one of you am I supposed to believe?' Hoseok said, making his scared face.

That's when Jungkook entered the room.

'Oh! Jungkook is here!' Seirra exclaimed. 'Did you get your wand back?' she asked as she scooted over in her already occupied seat.

'Yeah…' he said. His mood still sour.

'What happened?'

'I have to serve detention this weekend because of that Dracwyn,' Jungkook answered, sitting down next to Taehyung in a huff.

'Oh no! That's so unfair!' Sierra cried out, reaching forward to Jungkook. 'Well what about _her_? I hope she got punished too! She's the one who started it.'

'Yeah she has the same detention… but Snape is supervising it so we all know how it's going to happen. It might was well be just my detention with double work. I'm sure she's going to get away with it,' Jungkook said lightly kicking a chair aside.

'No way! You can't let that happen,' Hoseok said, the green bean all forgotten. 'If that's the case then tell Mcgonagall or Flitwick about it. This is ALL Dracwyn's fault. It's high time Slytherins stopped getting away with creating messes. It boils my blood. Playing quidditch with them is the worst,'

'Tell me about it,' Jungkook said, shoulders slumping back feeling exhausted from the day. 'I thought things will improve after Ash Vorhart became their captain. But she seems to be hanging out with Dracwyn all the time now. She's going to become one of those irksome serpents,'

'I have never liked that bunch ever since I joined school,' Seirra said. 'They are evil, arrogant bullies. Why are such people even allowed to study here? It's like you are willingly inviting death eaters.'

'I'll tell you why. Who wants to cross a death eater?' Hoseok said, tone dark. 'You think people are ready to take the heat if Hogwarts shuts their gates to these black blooded people? You Know Who is gone but these remaining death eaters will strike us the moment they think we have insulted them,'

Taehyung looked at his housemate uneasily, hand touching the four petalled locket inside his shirt. _They are wrong. This locket right here is proof of that isn't it?_

He could understand Hoseok's anger. A decade ago, six year old Hoseok and his family had been attacked. The Death Eaters needed his father to give up information regarding an object in the Department of Mysteries, where he worked. And for leverage, they wanted to take his mother and him as hostage. Jin's family had offered to provide protection to them, but the attack was unexpected. All his mother could do was somehow send off Hoseok to Jin's house and let herself be taken hostage. Taehyung's mother, a skilled auror had led the rescue mission. They managed to bring her back alive, but the damage to her because of the Cruciatus and Imperius curse was severe and she still hadn't fully recovered. Taehyung could not blame Hoseok for hating death eaters with so much rage. But it was still not easy for him to hear all that they were saying right now.

'And I bet that Dracwyn is as black blooded as her parents,' Seirra continued. 'I swear they should've passed a law to banish all families of death eaters the moment You Know Who died. We are living with a time bomb. People like her shouldn't-'

'Why are you being so harsh on them?' Taehyung finally cut in. Everyone turned to stare.

'What are you saying Taehyung?' Seirra asked him, unable to believe her ears.

'Do any of us even know her? Or any of the other Slytherins for that matter. Then why are we sitting here talking crap about them?' he said defiantly.

'Do we know any of them? Tae, half of them bully you so badly because your mom is an Auror. I can't believe you are taking their side!' Hoseok said disbelievingly.

'I am not taking their side. I am not taking anyone's side. Yes some of them are bullies and I hate those guys coz they have personally frustrated me. She hasn't... I am only asking, why are you all judging her without ever even having a proper conversation with her?' Tae said.

'So have you had a conversation with her then?' Jungkook asked, glowering. 'Coz I have and she is so arrogant it makes me want to pull my hair out,'

Taehyung turned to Jungkook, 'But that's all she is. She is arrogant. Is that bad enough that we call her black blooded? And it's not like the rest of the school ever spoke nicely to her to begin with. She came in branded as a bad person because of something her parents did,'

'Well the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree,' Seirra remarked snidely.

'Seriously Taehyung, why are you defending her so much? Do you have a crush on her?' Jungkook asked astonished at his friend's weird behaviour.

'What? No! I don't have a crush on her!' Taehyung retorted.

'Well, there is no other explanation for your behaviour then!' Jungkook snapped back.

'This is ridiculous!'

'YOU are being ridiculous,' Jungkook said.

'And when does saying black blood become any different from saying mudblood?' Taehyung asked incensed. Everyone become uneasy at the latter word. 'We are basically calling them what they call us so how does it make us any different from them?'

Jungkook opened his mouth to argue again but Emina cut in. 'I think we all should calm down now. What Tae is saying is not wrong you know,'

'It's better we don't continue this topic,' Namjoon added.

'I think I should head to bed,' Taehyung got up from his seat not looking at anyone. 'See you guys tomorrow.'

He walked out of the room and headed towards the Hufflepuff dorms. He had his wand lit and was passing a corridor of paintings, when he heard footsteps behind him and a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Jungkook.

'Taehyung I didn't mean to upset you like that,' he said to his friend.

'You've had a hard day… I shouldn't have pushed the conversation too much,' Taehyung replied.

'Come let's talk a walk. There's a cool breeze outside,' Jungkook said.

Taehyung and Jungkook headed to the school grounds through the secret passage behind a gargoyle. The passage opened out of a burrow, some distance away from the castle. They would often sneak out at night through this way if they felt like roaming about the grounds. Soon they were in open ground, with stars above their head and a cool breeze on their face and they walked along the bank of the great lake.

'Tae, we are good friends, right?' Jungkook asked him.

'Huh? Why are asking me that all of a sudden? You know it all, you are my best friend,' Tae replied with a tune to his words, trying to lighten the heaviness around them.

'You do trust me then? Completely trust me?' Jungkook asked with big doe eyes.

'Of course I do! I trust you with my life!'

'Then why do you hide stuff from me Tae?'

Taehyung blinked, unable to think of an answer. Now he had his suspicions as to why exactly did Jungkook call him out for a walk.

'What do you mean? What did I hide from you?' He asked with guarded eyes.

'Tell me the truth about Laura Dracwyn,' Jungkook said. 'What is going on between the two of you? Don't deny it. I've had my suspicions since that Shrieking Shack incident,'

'Do you really think I have a crush on her?' Taehyung said, trying his best to distract Jungkook from probing into the real truth of it. Laura would not be happy if Jungkook found out anything.

'Well, I have my doubts about that but that's not what I'm talking about. You both seem to be having this unspoken conversation in the great hall, like you both know each other. I know you hate Jeffrey and Derreck but you never speak a word against Laura even though she seems like an evil mastermind. And today you looked angry and hurt when you started to defend her,'

Taehyung opened his mouth but Jungkook raised his hands to stop him.

'Yes yes I know whatever you said back there makes complete sense. We should not be judging them like this. But there was something more to it. If you trust me and say I'm your best friend, then tell me what it is,' Jungkook said, looking Tae in the eyes.

Taehyung bit his lower lip and then sighed. 'You won't let this be, will you,'

'Damn right I won't. And I know when you lie so don't try that with me,'

'Alright… sit down,' Taehyung said, sitting on the grass with his legs folded. Jungkook followed suit. 'Before I tell you anything, you have to swear to me, you cannot let anyone know about this. And I mean not one other soul. You cannot tell Hoseok or Jimin. Even Laura should not get to know,'

'I swear to you,' Jungkook replied in assurance, holding out his little finger.

Tae smiled at the familiar gesture they had followed since they first became friends. He hooked his pinkie and sealed the deal.

'Okay… I guess I should start that the beginning… The first time I met Laura was in Knockturn Alley, 4 years ago, when I had gone for my first year supply shopping,'

As Jungkook listened to Taehyung's retelling of the past, there was impatience growing in the north east dungeons of the castle.

A 5th year boy entered the dark unused dungeons. It was fully made of stone with no furniture whatsoever. It looked more like a storage cell. There were around 10 people inside. The student went to a woman, sitting by a small barred window. She was gazing out, looking at the reflected moon in the lake. As she heard the boy's footsteps, she turned, her curly black hair, swaying in the breeze.

'So who were they?' she asked him, her dark, heavy lidded eyes were curious.

'3 Slytherin students,' he replied, not daring to look the woman in the eye.

'You were told to be careful. You and that girl. Looks like I entrusted our safety in the wrong hands.'

'No no. I assure you this won't happen again. And among the 3 one was Laura Dracwyn and the other Min Yoongi. Even if they saw anything, they would never betray you, would they?' the boy said.

The woman chuckled hearing the two names. 'Well there's no time for it to happen again. It will be full moon tomorrow and we should do what we came for.'


	7. 7 Connection

**7\. Connection**

Taehyung and Jungkook were on the grassy banks of the lake, sitting cross legged. Jungkook intently listened to the younger one while the cool breeze ruffled their hair. The lake sparkled a silvery blue under the moonlight.

'I was looking for a shop called Twilfitt and Tatting's Clothing in Diagon Alley,' Taehyung said.

'That pompous place?' Jungkook's eyebrows arched. 'Can you afford those clothes?'

'Of course I can't afford it! But we all know how good Twilfitt robes look!' said Tae and Jungkook nodded in agreement. 'I just wanted to see them from the displays. Mom was busy with some work with the Wizengamot so I had come with some friends. None of them wanted to come with me; they'd rather go to Gambol & Japes. I've been to that joke shop enough times. So I decided to go to Twilfitts on my own. I asked around for it. One plumpy man at some store called The Magic Shop gave me directions. As far as I can remember, I followed the path but I guess I took a wrong turn,'

'Did he look sketchy? This guy?'

'He had a black hood and a mask. But when I spoke to him, he removed the mask and smiled at me with those round cheeks, he looked like a human teddy bear honestly, I don't think he misled me. But soon I was in Knockturn Alley,'

'Why am I not surprised that you found Dracwyn there,' Jungkook rolled his eyes.

Taehyung pursed his lips. 'Do you want to listen or not. I told you don't judge yet,' he reminded the older.

'Ok ok I won't interrupt,' Jungkook folded his arms over his chest, shivering a little in the cold air.

'So I was lost in that scary Knockturn Alley,' Taehyung continued, the images of the memory coming back into his head.

4 years ago

Taehyung ran from one store to another. Everything seemed morbid in this place. There were shops with all kinds of animal feet hanging in the windows. He even saw a bloodied heart on display, still pumping. Some shops had all windows tinted black. The people he passed looked at him suspiciously. Fear crept inside him. They were much bigger or much older than him with stern, gaunt faces. He knew he was in a wrong area of Diagon Alley. He did not know who to ask for directions. He recognised a face in an open stall selling fried meat. It was the face of a Death Eater he had seen in the Daily Prophet - a fat man, with tiny eyes and a scarred face which reminded him of a wounded bulldog. It scared him to death. The man looked towards Taehyung and gave a scary grin, his mouth full of crooked teeth and red gums. Taehyung instantly ran, not knowing where to go. He found an alleyway stuffed with wooden crates and barrels. He went in, sitting near an empty barrel, trying to catch his breath.

He heard footsteps approaching and a girl peered inside the alley. She had dark hair which fell in waves till her shoulders and wore deep purple robes, matching the shade of her eyes. She looked a few years older than him and thankfully not as scary as the rest. Taehyung picked up some courage.

'Uh, can you help me?' he asked the girl.

'Who are you?' She asked with an expressionless face.

'I am… my name is T-Taehyung. I came to Diagon Alley to b-buy supplies for my first year at Hogwarts,' he explain, stuttering a little.

'So what are you doing in Knockturn Alley?' She asked.

'I lost my way. Someone misdirected me. Please can you help me find the way back?' He asked earnestly. Her eyes studied him carefully while Taehyung's eyes looked at the silver dragon brooch she wore, next to which was a four petalled locket.

'Follow me,' the girl said. 'And don't speak a word to anyone. Don't meet anyone in the eye you got that?' She turned to leave but Taehyung stopped her.

'Hold on, where did you get that locket?' He asked, pointing to the silver she wore around her neck.

'How does my locket concern you?' she enclosed the locket in her palm. 'Stop asking questions if you want me to help you,'

'No wait, please I need to know!' He said.

'Why!?' the girl exclaimed with wide eyes.

'Because I have the same locket!' He said, pulling out an identical one from within his robes.

The girl was in complete disbelief.

'That's not possible,' she muttered. 'Where did you get that?' Her tone was accusing.

'My mother gave it to me. She told me to keep it safe. I keep it like a lucky charm,'

'Who's your mother?' She asked him. Taehyung realized he had let out too much. He shouldn't have spoken about his Auror mother in an area with so many Death Eaters. But he needed to know why this girl had this locket.

'Tell me your name at the least. You already know so much about me,' Taehyung said. The girl studied him again.

'Laura Dracwyn,'

'Oh…' Taehyung had briefly heard about the Dracwyns… they sometimes showed up in the Daily Prophet. 'Where did you get the locket?'

'It belonged to my mother. She gave it to me saying it belonged to a dear friend of hers. So tell me who is your mother?'

'My mother.. is Kim Jiyeon.' He said with a guarded face.

'Kim Jiyeon...The Auror?' Laura asked.

'The Auror.' Taehyung nodded.

Laura took in a deep breath. 'Show me your locket.' she held her palm out.

Taehyung unhooked the chain from his neck and handed it to her. Both lockets had engravings on them. Laura looked at it closely, studying the make and quality.

'I am not lying you know,' Taehyung said.

Laura ignored that and kept his locket on hers, pressing it together. They fit with a click, the grooves inside matching perfectly.

'Yeah I guess you are not.' She said. Taehyung held the joint locket in his hands and looked at it closely too.

'So our mums were friends?' He asked her, an innocent smile on his face, his eyes turning big and curious.

'How is that possible? Your mother was an Auror and… well everyone knows what… my mother was,' Laura said.

'But… it doesn't make sense. I know my mom isn't lying about this. She said it belonged to her dear friend. I remember that clearly,' Taehyung said.

'My mother never mentioned yours. So yeah, it makes no sense,' Laura said. Her mind was in deep thought and they heard some people walk towards them.

'We can wonder later. Please get me out of here,' Taehyung cried.

'Right… follow me,' Laura said, gathering her thoughts and walked ahead with Taehyung behind her. People looked at her companion but no one wanted look too long, lest it displease Charles Dracwyn's grand daughter. They managed to pass by without anyone asking questions. But then they met a few fellow students. It was Graham Montague with 2 freshers who would go on to become Taehyung's tormentors - Jeffrey and Derreck.

'Hey Laura!' Montague called out to her.

'Shit…' Laura cursed under her breathe. 'Ok, just look normal. And hide that locket right now!' she said to Taehyung. He swiftly pushed the locket inside his shirt.

'Who's that?' Montague asked coming towards her. The two boys followed him.

'Dont know. Some boy who lost his way,' she said. 'I was headed to Diagon Alley so I told him to come with me,'

'Looks like a first year. These two are joining too,' Montague gestured to the two boys behind him.

'Oh. Didn't realize you both turned 11 this year,' she looked at the two juniors who returned acknowledging smiles but their eyes were darting to Taehyung. 'Anyways I'm leaving now. I have a lot of work,' without waiting for a goodbye, she set off with Taehyung following her.

'That's odd,' said Montague as he watched them go. 'Who is that guy? Do you guys know him?

When Laura and Taehyung reached the road to Diagon Alley, she held his arm tightly and stopped him.

'Listen to me,' her voice was urgent.

'What's wrong?' Taehyung asked her.

'I don't know what our mothers were. I can't ask mine… you know why. But maybe you can ask yours. Till then, promise me, swear to me, you will not show this locket to anyone and not speak of this incident to another soul' she said, her eyes searching his.

Taehyung gave a small understanding smile. 'I get it. You helped me so of course I promise you this stays between us. I'll let you know what my mom says,' he said to her.

'Ok, off you go then. And don't take directions from strangers,' and she walked away briskly.

In a few weeks Taehyung was at the door of the Great Hall along with other excited and nervous first years. Professor Mcgonagall opened the doors and they all walked in towards the Sorting Hat. When Taehyung's name was called, he sat under the hat for a long time.

'I see a lot of conflict in your mind… you have me confused,' he heard the Hat speak to him. 'I see loyalty, I see courage, I see innocence… but yet… there is something else. There is something… hiding within,' the hat said to him.

Taehyung was confused by whatever the hat was telling him. He bit his lip and rubbed his hands nervously. He looked around with big amazed eyes at the students sitting on the 4 long tables. On the table to the farthest left, under a green and silver banner he spotted Laura, looking at him curiously and he wanted to wave at her.

'Does Slytherin peak your interest? You do have the qualities for it but it will not be an easy path you know,' the Hat said. 'But your heart hasn't hardened seeing your friend in this unsuitable, hated house. Your heart is still loyal to her regardless. I think you will be better off in… HUFFLEPUFF!' The hat announced loudly. The table to the extreme right, under the yellow and black banners clapped and welcomed him. Taehyung slid off the chair and made his way to the table, giving one last glance to Laura who's face looked a little fallen.

Some days later, as Taehyung was going to his classes, he saw Laura in the corridor.

'Hi!' He waved at her excitedly. Laura looked at him startled. She looked around and started to walk like she didn't know him.

'Wait!' Taehyung called out.

'Looks like we caught a mouse,' Jeffrey walked to stand between him and Laura. Laura halted and looked back slightly.

Taehyung didn't know how to respond.

'Hey isn't this that Auror's son?' Derreck joined in. They both paced around him slowly as if they were scrutinizing their prey.

'Your mommy isn't here to protect you… you should be careful not to wander too far away from your burrow,'

'She won't hear if we make you cry you know,' they laughed. Taehyung's breath was hitching up. He had never faced a situation like this before.

'Jeffrey, Derreck,' Laura's sharp voice sounded through the corridor. 'Now is not the time, come on, we're late,'

Both the boys smirked at Taehyung and then moved away, following Laura out of the corridor. Jeffrey gave one last scoffing look to him. Taehyung's breathing slowly eased up. He wanted to talk to Laura but she would not even look at him.

That evening Taehyung received a note from an owl.

'Shrieking Shack. 12am. Gargoyle on the east wing corridor'

The letter was signed in the symbol of the locket and he understood who it was from.

With a lot of difficulty, Taehyung gathered enough courage to break a big rule within his first few weeks of school. He creeped around the east wing in darkness, trying to find an opening behind each gargoyle statue. Finally one of them moved and he crept into the tunnel behind it.

'Lumos'

The tunnel was slightly damp. Luckily there were no forks to confuse him and he reached a small opening towards the top. He peered out to see trees and grass. Pushing his feet against the rock he climbed out of the opening. The Shrieking Shack was right next to him. The door slowly swung open and Laura let him in.

'What were you thinking, trying to talk to me in public!' Laura instantly rained down at him.

'What? Why? What's wrong?' He asked innocently.

'What's wrong? You know what's wrong! I'm a Dracwyn! The world knows your mother led the mission which led to my parents…' she didn't finish the sentence and looked away, the memory of her parent's death was too painful to recollect.

'Our mothers were friends,' he said. 'I spoke to my mom about it after the day we met in Knockturn Alley and that's why I was so eager to talk to you,'

Laura looked at him earnestly, 'What did she say?'

'She said it is true. They knew each other in school but they became real friends later on. I hope you know that your parents wanted out of the Death Eater circle and mom was trying to help them get out safely,'

'Only I know about that. And my grandfather. We were expected to be a loyal family to the Dark Lord, not the disgraceful snitches. If… certain acquaintances found out, they will try to punish us for this betrayal,' she said, crossing her arms and moving further into the room.

'Who would punish you for not being a death eater?'

'Perhaps you haven't heard of my father's family, the Rosiers. It was by their influence that my father became a death eater, expecting my mother to support him. And then there are… certain cousins in the Lestrange and Black families,'

'I understand that,' Taehyung said, moving towards her. You don't have to worry about me telling anyone about this,'

'Well then you should've thought twice before trying to talk to me in public!' she was back at scolding him.

'I thought you were alone!' he cried.

'Next time, if you want to talk, make eye contact. If I can talk, I will. Else just ignore and walk away like you don't know me, you got that?'

'Does it have to be this uptight?' Taehyung wondered.

'It's for your safety as well as mine! You've already put yourself under the radar after today's act. Derreck and Jeffrey noticed you since Kockturn Alley. No wonder they dug out who your parents were,' she started pacing the room, feeling panicked. 'Trust me you do not want to be anywhere near the children of Death Eaters when you are the son of the most hated Auror AND a half blood,'

'I wont, I wont,' Taehyung tried to calm her down.

'You should get back now! Go the same way alright?' She said to him.

'What about you? Aren't you coming?' He asked, his lips turned down in concern.

'Don't worry about me. I know how to get about the castle,' she said, flopping on an old tattered chair in the room. 'Besides we need to give a gap. I'll leave later,'

'Alright then,' Taehyung nodded, giving a smile. He waved and left.

And then, 2 years later came the Shrieking Shack incident which almost blew their cover -

Taehyung was in pain. His hands and feet were bound and he was in the Shrieking Shack. He a door open in the other room followed by voices.

'What the hell are the two of you doing here?' it was Laura's voice and she sounded furious.

'Nothing! We just came to check the place out,' Jeffrey was trying to act innocent.

'Among the two of you, you are not the better liar Jeffrey,' Laura said. 'Where's the Hufflepuff boy?'

'What Hufflepuff boy?' both asked, feigning innocence.

'The Hufflepuff boy you both brought here,' Laura said.

'No idea what you are saying Laura. Are you alright?' Derreck said. 'Did you take something funny?'

And the next thing Taehyung heard was a painful screech.

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' Jeffrey yelled.

'Teaching him how to show respect. You better watch and learn too, unless you want your head to fry,' Laura said. And after a few more moments, Derreck's screams stopped, replaced with him gasping in relief.

' I will ask you one last time, where is the boy?'

There was silence and then Taehyung heard footsteps coming closer.

'Alohomora,' the door creaked open. She pushed it all the way and found Taehyung on the dusty wooden floor. He slowly looked up. There was a wound on his left cheek. Laura wanted to run to his side but she stopped her fast steps. She stood still a while and composed herself.

'And what was your lame plan for this boy?' She asked turning to the other two.

'It was just a prank,' Derreck said.

'You both think we seniors have tons of time on our hands to clean up after your messes?' She berated them, pointing at Taehyung on the floor. 'If you cause irreversible damage, then Snape will skin you alive. We might be pure bloods but Dumbledore will expel you all the same.'

'We won't get expelled! Our families will see to that!' Jeffrey retorted. Laura laughed out at that.

'How dumb are you? You think no one would've found him here? And your family won't be able to go against even a word of Dumbledore's,' she said and went to Taehyung. He was looking at her earnestly.

'Thank you…' he whispered in a hoarse voice, utterly exhausted.

'Don't think I did this for you boy,' she said with a hard heart. 'Emancipare' she pointed the wand at him and his whole body loosened out. He slowly moved his limbs and stood up.

'Let's get out of here now,' she said to the 3 juniors. Together they stepped out, only to bump into Jungkook who was out for Slytherin blood.

Present.

'So that's about it,' Taehyung said.

Jungkook stared at his friend blankly. His mouth hung open and eyes were wide in shock. Taehyung chuckled and pushed his chin up to close his mouth.

'I've told you everything. Don't break my trust,' he said.

Jungkook only blinked, still completely shook.

'You are saying… that Dracwyn actually cares for you?' He asked, totally unable to grasp the truth of things.

'Yes! She cares a lot! And even Min Yoongi. Remember when my pup Soonshim went missing 2 years ago? It was Yoongi who helped me find him,' Taehyung smiled.

'And… their parents were not Death Eaters?'

'That's what my mom tells me. But I swear, THAT truth no one can know. It might put their lives in danger,' Taehyung turned serious.

'Yeah I understand,' Jungkook nodded. 'Don't worry, I won't ever break your trust… Man I've been hating her so much since the Shrieking Shack incident. Not just me, the whole school. And now… I'm hearing all sorts of rumours of what happened at the Duel Club. And all targeted at her,'

'Now you know why I got angry back there. She's in a life where she can't be herself. She is hiding the truth about her parents from everyone she knows. And I feel Yoongi is in the same boat,'

'It's really difficult to wrap my head around all this,' Jungkook said, gazing at the lake, still shook from the truth.

Jimin walked to his common room after dinner. He realized many people were not meeting him in the eye. Otherwise whenever he greeted any one of them, he would atleast get an acknowledging nod. Right now, even if people noticed him, their smiles were forced and uneasy. Finally he saw someone he could talk to about this, his Ravenclaw friend named Tony, who was in the same year as him but twice his size.

'Tony!' he waved but the boy glanced away from him. 'Hey Tony!' Jimin grabbed his arm. Was he being ignored?

'Oh Park! Hi,' the other boy pretended to just notice him.

'Is it just in my head or is everyone behaving oddly with me. Even you are! What's happening?'

'What do you mean what's happening? You were there to see it all happen. How your prefect put everyone in danger,'

'What? Is that what this is about? Firstly, they were having a duel. Jungkook is my friend but I cannot blindly support him. He was fighting back recklessly too! And secondly, I had no hand in it so why am I being treated like this?'

'I don't know man… everyone's pretty pissed off with your house. And from what I heard, Jungkook was only trying to stop her and get the situation in control,'

'That's not true. I was there when it happened. If you have to blame them then it's equally the fault of both!'

'If Jeon gets expelled because of this mess then trust me, the entire school is gonna hate on you guys. Jeon is a good mate. We'd hate to see him go,'

'You guys are never ready to hear our part of the story,' Jimin said.

'Well, it is always really difficult to believe your side of the story. I heard from so many people about what happened at the duel club. They can't be lying to me, can they?' saying that, Tony went his way, leaving Jimin feeling like someone had punched him through his chest. He looked at the crowd of people heading in different directions in the castle. Which direction did he belong to? Neither did the Slytherins accept him the way he is, nor did the others trust him because he wore green.

He sulked away to his common room. Not wanting to see anyone. He decided to sit in their small balcony. He hopped on to the ledge, legs swinging freely in the breeze.

'That's not too safe,' a voice came from behind him. He turned to find Ash Vorhart standing there.

'I'll be fine,' Jimin said grumpily.

'What happened? I have never seen you like this. You walked through the common room like a gloomy cloud,'

Jimin looked away. 'I… I don't know how to say it…'

Ash hopped onto the ledge next to him but didn't say anything. She was trying to figure out for herself why had she chosen to sit by him. Was she liking this growing acquaintance with her new chaser?

'Your parents…' Jimin said. 'They… they are different from the parents of most of our housemates aren't they?'

'Different as in?' Ash asked, confused.

'They didn't get involved… in the war, did they?'

'No… They didn't. It was not easy, but they managed to stay out of it. Why do you ask?'

'My parents somehow managed to stay away from it too,' he said. 'Is that why… I am different?'

'How exactly do you think you are different?' Though Ash had an inkling what he was referring too.

'I don't enjoy being closed off. I treat everyone else as my friend, regardless of their house. Why isn't the Slytherin pride there in me? Was I sorted wrong…'

'Why do you want to be like the rest of them here?'

'Who is really my friend? Everyone here looks down on me because of how I am. Meanwhile, other houses shun me if one Slytherin does wrong. I used to turn a blind eye to all this… but I can't anymore,'

'You don't have to feel ashamed of who you are,' Ash found herself saying. She suddenly felt guilty about the times she had judged him for being too friendly. Look at him now… he meant nothing but to do good. 'I know there are people in other houses too, who won't see your house before making you their friend,' Ash said. 'But… I understand the situation is difficult,'

Jimin looked at her with searching eyes.

'What you faced all these years, I faced too in the beginning. And so I decided to choose a side. I realized being with your own kind will be better. There are always going to be people out there who will judge you. Slytherins might not be the kindest to others but no matter what they take care of their own. At least they are dependable that way,'

Jimin nodded slightly.

'You don't have to prove anything to anybody Jimin,' she said. 'Neither to them, nor to the Slytherins. You be however you want to be. This struggle of being stuck in the middle is not going to go away,'

Jimin ran his fingers through his hair and looked at her. If he could, he would've hugged her. He still couldn't believe Ash Vorhart had come to his aid… the girl he had an unspoken fondness for ever since he saw her play Quidditch in third year. She was telling him to be himself. That was one of the most reassuring things he had heard from anyone. Ash turned towards him and he saw her beautiful forest green eyes and smiled at her, all anger forgotten for a while.

Ash was suddenly startled at the way Jimin looked at her. She gave a small smile, ears turning slightly red and looked away. Jimin shyly looked away too, trying to suppress his growing smile. She looks cute when she blushes like that, with that cute little nose he thought. He again ran his fingers through his hair and when he kept it on the ledge, he felt another soft warm hand under his.

'Oh' both said, startled at the brief touch.

'Sorry I was just-' Jimin mumbled, feeling embarrassed and shy.

'I-it's fine,' Ash replied, looking everywhere except at him. Both were feeling their heart flutter all the way down to their stomach. 'Ok, I should head to sleep,' she nodded at him, eyes not lingering on him and went away.

When Jimin left for breakfast next morning, he didn't bother looking at anybody. Not like the rest of the school is awaiting my greeting he thought. He saw Yoongi, Laura, Montague and a few other of the elite group walk right in front of him. The moment they entered the hall, the noise died slowly and turned to low murmurs and whispers. Laura looked at the students around her with hard eyes and then made her way to the Slytherin table. Jimin followed them.

'Is this taken?' Jimin asked Yoongi, pointing to the vacant seat next to him.

'No,' Yoongi replied, shaking his head. Jimin slid in.

'She used a dark magic,' they heard someone whisper behind them from the Gryffindor table.

'What else can you expect from a black blood,' another whisper replied.

Jimin turned to look at who was talking. It was two Gryffindor 5th years boys, stealing glances at the Slytherin table. When they saw Jimin look at them, they slowly turned ahead. Jimin stood up and went to them.

'What did you say?' Jimin asked them in a threatening tone.

'Uh, nothing. Park you better get back to your table,' one of the boys said.

'You called her a black blood,' Jimin did not move from his stance. Ash was watching all of this from across the table, her mouth hanging open and spoon held midway. Yoongi and the rest turned to see as well.

'I called her what she is,' the boy replied, giving a stink eye to the rest of the Slytherins.

'Apologise. Right. Now,' Jimin glared at them. Everyone around was shocked to see him like this.

The 2 Gryffindors stood up and their friends seated around them looked like they were ready to back them up.

'We shouldn't be the ones apologising. Go back to your table,' they said, giving a slight push to Jimin. Before Jimin could respond he saw a pale hand grab hold of the Gryffindor's hand.

'Keep your hands to yourself,' Yoongi said, clenching and slightly twisting the boy's hand before pushing it away. 'Don't you dare lay your hands on us,'

Jimin looked at Yoongi a bit startled.

'You want a fight right now?' The Gryffindor boy snarled.

'Ahem,' came the voice of the Head Boy, who came right next to them. Both sides slightly eased up.

'What's happening?' Namjoon enquired.

'These Slytherins were creating trouble as usual,' the Gryffindor said confidently.

'Jimin?' Namjoon exclaimed, surprised at seeing his friend involved.

'They called one of us a black blood,' Jimin said.

'Did you now?' Namjoon asked looking back at his house students. The Gryffindor boys shrugged.

'If I hear anyone using that word anymore, they will be reported to Professor Mcgonagall,' Namjoon said loudly. 'No exceptions. There are enough rumours going around. You both don't need to add to it,' he said to his house mates. Then he turned to the Slytherins 'Go back to your table.' The Slytherins gave a lingering glare to the two boys and went their way.

'That was unexpected,' Ash blurted out as Jimin sat opposite her, running his hands through his dark hair.

Laura smiled at him maybe for the first time. She appreciated him standing up for her.

'Well no point being good to people who judge you. You were right. It's better being with your own kind,' Jimin said to Ash, grabbing an apple from the table and taking a bite.

'I think we had enough trouble for the whole semester in this one week,' Yoongi said. 'We need to chill and unwind,'

Laura gave him a knowing gaze and her lips pulled in up in a smile. 'The dungeon?' she asked, referring to a secret dungeon they had in their common room. Only the luckiest in Hogwarts history were allowed to enter.

'I came with a refilled stash from home!' Yoongi said.

'So did I,' Laura said. 'Ash,' she whispered to her roommate, 'keep yourself free tomorrow post 10 pm,'

Ash had once been to these secret Slytherin parties. Even her lips pulled up in a smile, 'Alright then.'


	8. 8 Elkyres

Jin and Namjoon were in their afternoon Alchemy class. This year seemed to be more of theory than practice. Everyone was sleepy while Professor Hohen wrote some points on the board. Jin rolled up pieces of parchment and flung it at Namjoon's ear, who was sitting in front of him. Namjoon looked back puzzled.

'What happened?' he asked his best friend.

'I've thought of a new joke,' Jin said. Everyone around him started complaining.

'No more dad jokes Jin!' Emina cried.

'But this one is not too bad! Hear me out!' Jin continued, ignoring his friends. 'What do you have to do to have a party in outer space?' He asked all the blank faces around him.

'You have to planet,' Jin said and burst out laughing. He had that sounded like a sponge wiping a glass window, but many found that adorable about him. Seeing him laugh, Namjoon laughed too. The others just shook their heads.

'Namjoon thinks it's funny, and he's more intelligent than the rest of you, so my jokes aren't bad,' Jin said smugly.

'He laughs at all of your jokes so it doesn't matter,' Emina rolled her eyes.

'Ok here's another one. What did the dog say to the wall?' Jin asked.

'Jinnie, one joke is enough for the day!' Emina raised her eyebrows.

'Miss Carter, what is the talk going on back there?' Professor Hohen asked Emina, looking through his round spectacles.

'Emina was spoiling my jokes,' Jin whined, pointing at her like a child. Emina gaped at him with bewildered eyes.

'Guys I understand this time it's more theory, but try not to get too distracted alright?' Hohen almost pleaded.

'Professor wasn't today supposed to be a special class by the Headmaster?' Jin asked.

'We had to reschedule,' Hohen said, continuing to write on the board. 'He is on Wizengamot duty at the Ministry,' Hohen said.

Hohen heard some sad whines from the students at missing out on Dumbledore teaching them. It was every students wish to be taught by the greatest wizard alive.

'Don't worry, I'll make it happen!' Hohen said, trying to cheer them up. 'Till then here's your homework.'

This time the whining was much louder.

When the class ended, Namjoon lingered back to try and get some information out of Hohen. He and Jin had discussed this after learning about the Ministry's fears regarding Alchemy and Jin had been quite interested in getting to the bottom of it. Along with Emina, they had got to work, checking out books in the restricted section and anywhere else they could. Emina finally found a very old book in the Ravenclaw library, written in ancient runes which might hold the answer to their questions. Together with Namjoon both tried to translate the writings but they needed better insight.

'Professor?' Namjoon placed his long fingers on Hohen's desk.

'You look like you are brimming with questions,' Hohen smiled at him.

'I am… and I hope you answer them,'

'Of course I will,'

'Can you… can you tell me about Elkyres?'

Hohen's smiled visibly faltered, 'Where did you read about that… you aren't supposed to know that term,'

'You once said knowledge is for everyone and only cowards hide facts. Isn't that why you are fighting with the Ministry to teach us deeper alchemy?'

Hohen gave a chuckle, 'I share too much with you three, don't I… this is going to be my downfall,'

'Professor you know I can handle delicate information. I read about it and am very intrigued. Please help me out before I mislead myself translating those ancient languages,'

'Alright,' Hohen gave in. 'What is your question about Elkyres?'

'I read that… they control forces of nature. Is that correct?'

'More accurately, they control the elements present in nature. Earth, fire, wind, water, metal, ice and even electric and magnetic currents,'

'Do they really exist? Why don't we know of them?'

'Because the Ministry threatens to prosecute any Elkyre they find. Elkyres are a great force of nature… and by some balance of the universe, these powers are rare and roam only among a select few, passed down through generations,'

'But they are still mortal? Or immortal?' Namjoon asked, eyes wide in curiosity.

'They are human, but… they are not like ordinary witches and wizards… their magic transcends the need of spells, wands and staffs… their body can live transformed in that element and the power is immeasurable. One such being, Aquirys by name, could submerge half the earth under water if they wanted to,'

Namjoon breathed in. Was the existence of such a power even possible? he wondered.

Hohen stood up, 'I've told you quite enough Namjoon. My advice would be not to go looking for more information on this. Don't poke into things the Ministry doesn't want you to. You don't know their power and politics yet,'

'I understand Professor,' Namjoon gave his dimpled smile. He appreciated the man's concern but his curiosity would not let him be at peace. Of course he was going to dig up more on this.

'What did he say?' Jin jumped at Namjoon the moment he saw him. Emina was looking at the Head Boy curiously as well.

'Not a lot,' Namjoon said, leading the way to their usual spot on the castle grounds. A white owl flew their way, perching on Jin's shoulder.

'Owlbus!' Jin exclaimed at his owl, 'You have something for me!' he took the letter from the bird's beak. His face fell a little when he read who it was from.

'You guys go ahead,' he said to his friends who nodded and left without probing further.

Jin tore the envelope open and read the letter from his father.

Dear Jin,

Hope you are doing well. The final year can be taxing but I know you will excel. You have always been headstrong in whatever you do. I am always proud of you and hope to be in the future too.

And that is why I am writing to you. I heard from your mother about your plans after Hogwarts. I see you are feeling a bit lost in your direction and it is concerning me. Jin, I have worked hard my entire life to keep the Kim name as prestigious as it was 300 years ago when our forefathers made this country their new home. We had discussed it at length, the plans about you taking my position on the Ministry's inner council after me. I would only feel it right if you succeed me, not someone else who just swoops in to take a part of what the Kims have built. But now you say this isn't what you want? Jin, if we don't stay as strong as a fortress, the dragons will wade in.

I want you to think with a calm and clear mind about the responsibilities that are upon you. I know that you want what is best for our family. Hope you write back to me soon. We miss you.

Love,

Dad

Jin crushed the parchment in his hands.

'Incendio' he said and the parchment lifted up in the air, flames erupting from it, reducing it to ash in no time. He walked to where his friends were.

Emina and Namjoon were slumped against the trunk of a big Aspen tree. The shade and breeze were a good break from the classrooms.

'Do you think it's his family again?' Emina asked.

'It is always his family,' Namjoon replied.

'It's unfair isn't it? The pressure of following his father's footsteps? It's not like he asked to be born in such an important family,' she said.

'I know… but they just won't let it go. I guess the only thing that can be done is run away together after school ends,' Namjoon said chuckling.

'Run away? Yeah ok, that doesn't sound too bad. I'll marry Jin and you can be our butler,' Emina said laughing.

'Me? Butler? Why don't you marry me and Jin can be the butler? He cooks well enough!' Namjoon said.

'Nah, Jin is more husband material than you. And isn't your heart set on Ash Vorhart?' Emina asked teasing him. Namjoon looked away embarrassed.

They heard a voice behind them, 'What will happen is Jin and Namjoon will get married while you be the butler,' Hoseok threw his heavy book bag next to the two. Emina laughed out loud hearing that.

'Yes that's highly possible,' she said.

'I have an idea,' Namjoon said, springing to his feet. He took his wand and drew a circle on the ground. The other two sat up curiously.

'We have soil… and grass, water in the soil, air,' Namjoon muttered to himself. He touched four points in the lighted circle. The ground vibrated slightly and stems started to spring up from the ground. First three or four, then as many as ten. And from them bloomed beautiful white lilies.

'Jin's favourite flowers!' Emina said, eyes wide in amazement at Namjoon's flawless alchemy.

Jin walked into sight. His mouth hung open at the beautiful field of lilies in front of him.

'Woah! What is this? It isn't the season for lilies! I don't remember seeing them earlier!' He exclaimed with sparkling brown eyes.

'Namjoon made them bloom for you!' Hoseok said.

Jin walked closer to the flowers, grazing his fingertips over the silky petals. He came and sat down next to Namjoon, taking a flower for himself.

'It's beautiful!' He said, smelling the flower. Namjoon gave his cute dimpled smile, eyes looking at his own hands shyly.

'So, what did Hohen tell you?' Jin asked, leaning back on the tree with the others.

'So whatever we read about Elkyres is true,' Namjoon replied. 'They have formidable magic and control elements in nature. He even told me the name of one such being- Aquirys, who could control the seas,'

'Aquirys?' Jin blinked. 'I know that name… I've read that name in some of the ancient books of my family,'

'Have you?' Namjoon's eyes widened, 'You have to find out more!'

'I can only access those books when we go home for christmas,' Jin said.

Hoseok moved closer into them circle, 'Can you… can you try and See more about it?' he asked cautiously. 'If you wish to,'

'I'll try but don't have your hopes up,' Jin said. 'My Seeing is very circumstantial and doesn't work under my control,'

'Namjoon,' Hoseok turned to the Head Boy, 'I found a spot for Tae's training. I've told Jungkook to bring him, so we should head there too,'

On the other side of the castle grounds, Taehyung was at the food of a fir tree, feeding grain to a big grey bird. The boy smiled as he gently stroked the bird's neck. The bird was not the most beautiful one. Rather it looked like an underfed vulture.

'Hey Tae,' Jungkook walked towards him. The sound of twigs crunching below his feet startled the bird slightly.

'Hey Kookie! Look I found an Augurey,' he said just as the bird ruffled its feathers preparing for flight.

'All animals seem to like you,' Jungkook squatted next to him after the Augurey had squaked and flown away. 'I read that Augureys are a sign for rain,'

'Well, I hope it doesn't rain,' Taehyung said looking at the cloudless sky. 'What's up? You were looking for me?'

'Yeah, so… I was thinking, with you being under the radar of those bullies… maybe you should learn to defend yourself better? What if one of us isn't there to sort things out? Those guys don't know their limits, I don't know what they would do to you,'

Taehyung sighed, 'You sound just like Laura,'

'Please, don't even compare us-'

'But you do. She said the exact same thing to me,'

'Anyway,' Jungkook tried to get the topic back to the important stuff, 'I know you think it's violence but it's not. It's only for your protection,'

'I know…' Taehyung said softly.

'Then why are you so hesitant?'

Taehyung took a deep breathe, wondering how was he to explain what he felt to Jungkook when he didn't understand it himself.

'I…' Taehyung tried to voice his thoughts. 'I… I have these moments… of such anger that it scares me. I'm scared I'll lose control and something terrible would happen. I feel this… surge, like a tremor that I want to… ' Taehyung paused, swallowing the words.

'To what? Punch the guy?'

'That's the kindest way to put it,' he said, looking away from the earnest expression on Jungkook's face.

'That's understandable. Anyway, I already told Namjoon to take lessons for you, so will you please listen to me about this because you know I care for you,'

'Jungkook you aren't understanding what I'm-'

'Tae,' Jungkook put a hand on his shoulder. 'What I'm trying to say is… whatever you're going through, you have to find a way to overcome it. You need practice and Namjoon is the best teacher out there,'

Taehyung looked at the ground beneath him. He had a fear of lifting his wand against someone. Whenever he thought about it, his mind was filled with flashes of images of someone getting hurt, of blood and chilling screams. He didn't know if they were real or figments of his overworked imaginations and nightmares. Will Hoseok be able to tell him more about it? If anyone knew what it feels like to see things that don't exist, it was Hoseok.

'Tae, give this a shot, please. You can't sit hand in hand forever,' Jungkook appealed to him again.

Taehyung looked at his earnest doe eyes, concern mixed in his expression. He took a deep breath and nodded. Maybe this is what he needed, a friendly environment where they could practice.

Soon they all gathered at the spot Hoseok selected.

'This should be a good place,' Namjoon said, his hands on his hips as his eyes analysed the open space, enclosed by vegetation on either side. This way not many will notice them.

'So how should we do it?' Jin asked. 'Should one person duel against Tae and we instruct him?'

Hoseok volunteered to go first.

'Tae! C'mon!' Jin called out to the youngest. Taehyung came running towards them like a child, his brown hair bouncing.

'Ok! I'm ready!' He same hopping to a spot opposite Hoseok.

'Do you know how to disarm?' Jin asked him. Jungkook sat on the grass a few feet away, observing them all from a distance as he ate wafers from a packet. Emina had got a lot of muggle snacks and dried seaweed wafers were his favourite.

'I know the spell for it but haven't really disarmed anyone before,' Tae replied.

'Ok, take your position here,' Jin demonstrated, standing sideways and pointing his wand at Hoseok. 'You have to move your wand like you are striking at your opponent, like this,' he showed the younger. Tae imitated the movement.

'Aim with your eyes and speak out the incantation. Hoseok won't defend himself yet,' Namjoon added.

Taehyung repositioned his stance, concentrating hard on his opponent.

'Expelliarmus!' He cast out the invisible beam which struck Hoseok's hand. His wand flew out and slid on the ground. Everyone applauded Taehyung's successful first attempt.

'Good, you're a fast learner!' Jin patted his back. 'Let's take it up a notch. Now Hoseok will attack too. You have to disarm him first,'

Both the Hufflepuffs regained their position.

'Tae I believe in you!' Hoseok said from across him

'Begin!' Namjoon announced.

Both sides shouted the disarming spell but neither hit the other. They circled around a little and tried again.

Everyone duelled each other in turns. Taehyung was steadily learning. He liked this supportive environment. Without being condescending, Namjoon helped him correct his mistakes and Hoseok was an ocean of encouragement. Emina and Jin kept the atmosphere fun with their jokes even though most of it were Jin's dad jokes which would only make Namjoon laugh.

'Ok my turn!' Emina said, hopping in front of Taehyung. 'Tae go full power! Don't hold back!'

Both took their position and shot out their spells.

'STUPEFY!' The red beam from their wands collided and struck back, hitting both of them square in the chest with a big impact. Emina and Taehyung were thrown back with the force. Emina scraped the ground several feet while Taehyung glided and hit the ground.

'Oh no!' Jin exclaimed as he ran to rescue Taehyung and Hoseok rushed to Emina.

'Are you ok?' He asked, kneeling beside her and bending down to pick her up. Emina groaned as the pain slowly receded, trying to hoist herself up.

'I think we made good progress for today, we can head back now,' Namjoon said.

'You sure?' Tae asked. 'I can still practice more,'

'It's getting close to curfew time and we can't stay on the grounds longer,' Namjoon said. He put an arm around Taehyung's shoulder and they all headed back to the castle.

After dinner, Laura was busy assigning work to the invited juniors to steal some food from the kitchens. After seeing that the arrangements were on track, she went to her room. She bent below her bed and pulled out her big trunk. She opened it and rummaged through, pushing her curious cat out of the way.

'Ser Baron, I already fed you. Go hunt some mice,' she set the one-eyed grey cat near the open window and went back to her trunk, pulling out a long wooden box from it.

'What's that?' Ash asked curiously.

'Well, if my dreams of working at the Ministry fail,' she said, snapping the locks open. 'I think I'll open an underground bar,' she flipped open the box. Inside were long bottles of various types of liquor.

'Where did you get all this from?' Ash asked amazed, moving closer to it.

'We have a collection at home. One of the companies under Grandfather makes wine and other liquor. No one notices if I take away even a dozen,' she winked and grabbed a wine bottle. 'And tonight, we're gonna have the top bunk of this,' she kept two bottles of elf-made wine, firewhiskey and one bottle of Absinthe. 'I'm curious to try Absinthe. The color is lovely,'

'Yes it is,' Ash said, taking the bottle and twirling it in her hand. The liquid inside gleamed green. 'Only seniors invited right?'

'Only seniors,' she said, putting the bottles in a bag. 'I should go ahead and see if the juniors did their job. I'll see you there soon?'

Ash nodded, pulling on a green skirt, grey ballerina shoes and headed out. Jimin came from the boy's dorms, running a hand through his hair. Her breath hitched a bit seeing him in the same sleeveless shirt which he had worn during the Quidditch tryouts. Those dangerously low cut arms gave a peek to his chest muscles.

'Shall we get going?' Jimin asked her. His eyes looked over her, top to down briefly before looking away. But Ash didn't really notice that because her mind was concentrated on other aspects of Jimin.

She slowly nodded walking with him towards one corner of the common room. In the wall, one of the panels slid just very slightly. One would not expect anything to be inside but Ash pushed through the gap, and Jimin followed. Both lit their wands and continued walking down the dark tunnel.

'Are we...underwater right now?' Jimin's voice echoed.

'Yeah, this is an underwater tunnel. Pretty cool right?' Ash looked back at him and smiled. Jimin's eyes were wide in awe.

'I bet no other house has these cool things in their dorms!' he said.

'I'm pretty sure they don't. That's why they're always out on the grounds trying to have fun,' Ash replied, feeling proud. After walking another minute in this silent tunnel minute, they reached a door.

Jimin pushed the door and as soon as it flung open, a burst of noise and light hit them. A hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in. The room was full of people. The walls were tiled with plain grey stone slabs. Jimin saw a small shallow pool along the front wall of the room. The water from the lake probably streamed into this. Makeshift seating arrangements were on the floor - tattered sofas, small tables, rugs. Tiny colorful balls of light were just whizzing around the room, casting their light everywhere. There was thumping music playing. The gold framed windows of the room showed a much deeper of the lake. Jimin went to gaze out the window and saw creatures he had never ever seen before. He even saw the giant squid sleeping in his lair. The green light emanating from these windows added to the trippy vibe of this small room.

Yoongi came through the crowd, grabbing his shoulder and putting his arm around him. 'Let's get you a drink!' His blonde hair was ruffled and he looked like he had already had his first round of alcohol.

Laura had set up an upturned chest of drawers as a makeshift bar and was mixing drinks.

'She likes to experiment,' Yoongi whispered to Jimin. 'Choose wisely,'

'Let's start with shots!' Laura announced before anyone could say anything. She had already started preparing the absinthe.

'Yoongi, as the new leader you have to make the toast,' Montague said.

Yoongi held out his glass high, everyone followed, holding it close to his. 'This is to the seniors who transformed this scraggy room into the best place in the world and to all the new faces here who will keep the tradition going,' he smiled and shot a glance to Jimin who smiled back. ''This is also to our Slytherin unity. The whole world may hate us, probably coz they wish they were one of us,' he smirked and heads nodded in agreement. 'But we'll continue being who we are. House Slytherin!' He cheered and others cheered with him. They clanked their glasses and emptied the green shot in one go. Everyone instantly scrunched their noses and shook their heads at the strong burn going down their throat.

There was food being passed around. It was mostly leftovers from dinner. Everyone was having a good time. The alcohol had completely lowered their inhibitions. Ash was slightly buzzed by now. She looked at Jimin dancing and laughing with the other guys.

He has the most adorable laugh, she thought to herself.

'Yes he does,' she heard Laura beside her. Startled, she looked to her side and found Laura gazing at him in adoration as well.

Did I say that out loud? Ash thought. Laura looked at her.

'If you are wondering, yes you said it out loud,' she said, laughing. Ash turned a bright red. She needed to be more careful about whom she gazed at.

'You don't have to hide anything from me!' Laura nudged her by the elbow. Ash noted that the moment alcohol entered Laura's system, she became quite expressive.

Yoongi was sipping on firewhiskey when he noticed Vanessa move from her friends, towards him. His chest knotted. Ever since the break up, he had avoided her. Was that wrong on his part? Probably. But he didn't know how to cope with this.

'You know you don't have to avoid me,' she spoke softly, sitting next to him.

'Yeah… I know… I'm sorry,' Yoongi muttered.

'I thought you'll stop feeling awkward after a few months. We were friends since childhood before we started dating. And I still think you're a friend,'

'Honestly, I think that too,'

'So, how's he?' Vanessa asked, leaning back on the chair.

'Who?' Yoongi was dreading this.

'The one you sneaked off to check on in the infirmary,'

If the ground could open up and swallow him right now, Yoongi would like that. Yoongi swung the remaining contents of the glass down in one go. He hissed, smoke issuing from his mouth. His lilac eyes were steel-like.

'Van, whatever you said to me day, about… him, you said it in rage. None of that is true,' he said, remembering the loud fight they had on the day they broke up.

Vanessa leaned back on the tattered chaise, the green light from the lake throwing her face in shadow and light. 'I said a lot of shit that day, Min Yoongi… but not all of it was in rage,'

The Slytherin prefect gazed at her for a few seconds, and quickly broke eye contact. 'I'm going to get another drink,' he announced and escaped her probing blue eyes.

'I know you very well Yoongi, maybe better than you do yourself. Like I said, we were friends for a very long time,' he heard her say but did not respond.

'Hey Ash,' Jimin tugged at her arm. Ash turned to find a completely flushed Jimin, cheeks glowing pink. He was giggling at anything and everything.

'Cute… you,' he said, his cute crooked tooth peeking as he smiled.

'What?' Ash blinked at his smiling face but any further words from Jimin were drowned by Laura.

'Yoongi! The ceremony is left!' Laura yelled over the noise.

'Yes the ceremony!' Yoongi said, coming into the circle. 'Hey everyone! It's time to dunk Jimin!' Yoongi yelled over all the noise. Before Jimin could ask anything further a group of people lifted him up and carried him towards the pool and threw him in. The lukewarm water enveloped his heated body as the cheers silenced for a few seconds. Once he found his grip, he pushed his head up to the surface and saw everyone cheering him.

Everyone lost track of time playing in the cool water, slowly sobering up. Jimin splashed water at his friends as Yoongi playfully wrestled with him. He had head locked Jimin while Jimin tickled him to let go.

A noise, like rumbling thunder in the distance, caught Yoongi's attention and he looked towards their door.

'Did you hear that?' he asked the others.

In the abandoned classroom on the east wing of the castle, six students were lazily talking.

'Hey Jungkook, are those new glasses?' Namjoon asked the boy who was still snacking. Jungkook nodded while chewing like a bunny.

'Can I try it on? I wonder how round glasses look on me,' Namjoon asked. Jungkook gave him his glasses but…

'Oh no…' Namjoon said, looking extremely apologetic as the object snapped in two the moment he tried to wear them. Jungkook gave an exasperated sigh.

Next to them Jin was engrossed in making a house of cards. Taehyung was looking at the stacked up cards with a concentrated face.

'What are you doing?' Emina asked him with raised eyebrows.

'Do you believe in the power of the mind?' Taehyung asked her, his eyes unwavering from the cards.

'What do you mean?' she asked.

'I'm trying to move these cards with telekinesis,' Tae replied. Emina rolled her eyes.

'You can't be expecting to do one of the most rare and advanced forms of magic in your Fourth year?' she said to him.

'You need to belieeeve!' Taehyung said as Jin tried to carefully put the last card. Suddenly they felt the ground tremble and the house of cards collapsed, scattering all over the floor.

Everyone looked at Jin and Taehyung in surprise.

'Did you do that?' Jin asked Tae, who shook his head innocently. Instantly, there was another tremble around them and Jin blacked out.

He was standing at the entrance arch of Hogwarts, everything was covered in snow. He could hear a familiar voice calling for help in the distance. He tried to run to the voice but fell down, crying in pain from the cold ice beneath his bare feet. It pierced him like needles. The cold was choking him. He struggled against the burning snow and ran towards to the voice. As he drew closer, he saw people fallen on the icy ground around him. He couldn't see their faces. At the end of the path, he saw a white lily flower in bloom, the only other living thing apart from him in this frozen world. But he could see that its stem was starting to wilt and frost, alarmingly fast. He ran forward to somehow protect it. He was too late. By the time he reached it, it had turned to ice and it crushed itself, breaking into a hundred shards of ice. Jin's chest was in knots and he was unable to breathe. He felt like his heart was going to freeze and break like that flower.

'JIN! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!'

He heard Namjoon trying to call him back. There was a stinging ache on one side of his head. But he had to stay here. He had to know what was happening. Why were all these people dead?

He felt a punch on his face and everything around him started to change. The ice covered ground was replaced by a stony floor of the room they were just in. The furniture lay broken and there were glass shards everywhere. Namjoon pulled him up, making him run out the door as he heard blasts and screams.

'We're under attack!'


	9. 9 Fear & Courage

_Seven figures creeped in the dark, walking over the school caretaker, Argus Filch's unconscious body._

' _We should've killed him,' one of them said._

' _No,' a dark haired woman replied. 'I owe him a debt,' she smiled and walked forward. They reached a corridor through which faint white light fell in. Their shadows moved one behind another. As soon as the light got brighter, one of the shadows changed its form, becoming bigger and beast like, a low growl breached the silence. He swiftly moved away from the rest, who took another turn toward a brighter corridor._

' _Looks like they've made it easy for us. They are all together in the east wing,' said the man with a husky voice._

' _Lovely,' a dark haired woman replied. 'Looks like we are feasting tonight.' Giving a devilish grin, she lead the way to their prey._

 **Chapter 9 - Fear and Courage**

They looked at Jin's blank face and a few of them knew what had happened. He was having a vision, about something that was about to happen in the future. But along with that, there was something else out of place around them. They felt the ground tremble slightly and the door banged open. No one had any time to react. Splinters from the door flew in their faces and unspoken hexes were shot that them. Everyone dived and ducked behind the broken furniture to save themselves. Namjoon dived to the ground but then remembered Jin was still in his trance.

'Jin!' He yelled getting up. He cast a protective shield around Jin who was still sitting blankly; asleep to the chaos around him. Namjoon grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him under the table. He shook him but there was no reaction. Finally he had to slap that face, as he yelled his name to call him back. At last Jin blinked, a sense of his surroundings coming back to him.

'WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!' Namjoon yelled amidst the disarray.

'Confrigo!' he blasted the back wall of the room. Behind it were a series of old tunnels. He grabbed Jin by the waist, dragging him out through the tunnels.

Emina tried to stand up after her first chaotic fall but a hex hit her in the shoulder. She saw Hoseok on the floor, blood all around him.

'Finish this mudblood,' a man said, turning to leave, 'I need to catch the boy.'

A tall man turned Hoseok over with his foot. Emina saw her friend's face. He was bleeding from the lip and there was a gash on his abdomen. The man lifted his wand.

'Avada-'

Emina yelled her lungs out. He looked at her in surprise, his long hollow face showing an expression of shock for the briefest second. She grabbed her wand and without thinking just whipped it at him. A white flare shot from her wand, hitting the man in the chest. He was thrown back, hitting the wall behind him. Emina got up and ran towards a barely conscious Hoseok.

'Hobi! Hobi, wake up!' She cried, holding his head. There was a wound on his chest that scared her to the bone. She wanted to heal him but her hands were shaking.

By this time the man had recovered from the hit and came walking towards them.

'Stand aside girl, unless you want to die too,' he said, his hazel eyes had a crazy spark to them.

'Who are you?' She asked, wand at the ready.

'Why I thought my face was quite famous,' He laughed eerily, stroking his greying beard.

Emina remembered his eerie laugh from the papers, eyes widening in horror. He was a Death Eater named Howard Jenkins who had gone into hiding after the Dark Lord had been defeated. He belonged to You Know Who's inner circle - the selected 13 who the Dark Lord considered his best and most loyal. He had a death warrant on his head from the Ministry.

'What do you want?' She asked, praying that one of the professors, or better yet, Dumbledore came through the door to rescue them. Then she remembered that Dumbledore wasn't in the castle and a new fear washed over her.

'This mudblood right here,' he pointed his wand at Hoseok. 'I lost my brother because of his parents. His bloody mother did not give us what the Dark Lord wanted and my brother had to pay for it. So now I'm here to take her son from her,' he said spitefully.

Emina stood up, her wand aimed at him.

'Don't think that you can come in here and do whatever you want,' she said in a dangerous voice.

'And you, a kid will stop me?' He laughed again, his yellow teeth flashing.

'Reducto!' Emina shot at him. But he blocked it. He looked at her as if he wanted to play with his prey now. He grinned devilishly and both paced around slowly. Hoseok lay in pain in the middle.

'Em….' he whispered. 'Run…'

'I won't leave you like this,' she said to Hoseok, her eyes still fixed on Jenkins.

'You are making a grave mistake girl,' the Death Eater said. 'Incendio' Tongues of flame erupted from his wand, surrounding them in fire. Emina tried to not show her fear on her face. She relentlessly attacked, one hex after the other but Jenkins blocked them all.

In a last attempt, she thrust forward her wand, 'STUPEFY!', and the force of it was so strong that the windows shattered, shards of glass flying everywhere. Jenkins was thrown back from the impact. He hit the wall but got up quickly, grinning.

'Now we getting there,' he licked his lower lip. 'Crucio!'

The red beam of light hit Emina and she screamed in pain. It was like her insides were on fire. She curled up on the floor, screaming, her fingernails clawing at the stone floor. She felt a thousand knives piercing her and it wouldn't stop no matter how much she screamed.

Hoseok roared in fury seeing that. He pushed himself up on his palms, taking his wand from his robes.

'EXPULSO!' He screamed at the man and Jenkins fell backwards. Emina gasped out in relief, her breathing heavy. She coughed, trying to find her voice again. Hoseok limped and dragged himself in front of her, leaving a trail of blood in his path. His wand was still pointed at the Death Eater.

Jungkook and Taehyung ran through the unlit corridor. Both sent blasts at the two people chasing them but it didn't seem to do any good. He could hear the high pitched cackle of one of them. In the flashes of light, the paintings around them exclaimed in horror as to what was happening.

'Where are the Professors!' Jungkook yelled. Where was Filch to alert the castle when you needed him to. Jungkook did a full back turn. 'STUPEFY!' He yelled with as much force as he could. He sent a ball of red light with such impact that even he and Taehyung fell back along with their chasers. The paintings on either side of the walls shook and fell down. The floor board splintered along the path of his hex. Taehyung stared at Jungkook's display of strength, but Jungkook knew they had no time.

'Hurry hurry!' He pulled Taehyung to his feet and both ran towards Professor Flitwick's chamber. As they neared the fork towards it, they saw a big shadow making its way towards them.

'Jungkook what is that?' Taehyung whispered and they heard a low growl. They took slow steps backwards but the beastly figure was coming closer. The moonlight through the window cast its rays upon the creature.

Werewolf! Jungkook's mind screamed but his body was frozen in fear. He was too scared to even breathe.

The big black wolf had seen them. It stalked towards them on its hind legs, growling. Its yellow eyes were shining in the moonlight. It bared its big white teeth and the two boys ran in the opposite direction.

'But those chasers are that way!' Taehyung said. Jungkook had no idea what they should do. There was danger on either side. They climbed up a set of stairs and reached a junction. Choosing to turn left, they ran, only to bump headfirst into the course of their previous chasers.

'There he is!' One of them yelled and hexes were shot in their direction. The boys turned the other way to find that the werewolf had caught up to them. Jungkook caste a shield charm around them but he couldn't hold on for too long. He felt the beast push and claw at the invisible shield. He heard more voices and thankfully, felt the attacks on his shield lessen.

Ash and Jimin had found them right in time. Ash was fighting off the werewolf. But one required double strength in their attacks when dealing with a creature this powerful. Jimin and Jungkook duelled against the remaining 3 Death Eaters and found a familiar face among them.

Twycross! Their Apparition teacher showed no emotion on his face but continued fighting them mercilessly.

'There should be a woman with them,' Jungkook said, remembering that bone chilling laughter and that's when they realized, Taehyung was not here. The Death Eaters shot the last round of attacks at them and ran away, shattering a window and jumping down. Jimin looked back at Ash who was fighting the werewolf alone.

'Go find Tae!' He said to Jungkook. Jungkook nodded, nervous and unsure.

Taehyung was struggling, trying to break free of the invisible ropes around him while his capturer was dragging him by the collar.

'LET ME GO!' he screamed but he was not strong enough to break the magic that bound him. He was pulled forward and thrown against a wall. In front of him stood a man and a woman in black robes and hard faces. They were at the courtyard.

'Itty, bitty, baby,' the woman pouted. Taehyung recognised her. Every witch or wizard knew that malicious face… she the most evil follower of The Dark Lord - Bellatrix Lestrange.

'You've got some fight in you, don't you,' she came closer to him, observing his face, 'You do look like him. The alchemists will be very happy to have you,' she grinned.

'GET AWAY!' Taehyung whipped his head. He could feel that same maddening rage surging in him. His breaths were getting shorter and chest colder. But the two death eaters in front of him seemed to be filling with glee at that.

'You wanna hurt us boy?' Bellatrix came closer again. 'Go on, do it,'

'No,' Taehyung's voice shivered and he closed his eyes. He didn't want to do this… all he wanted as to be set free. He didn't want to hurt anyone. But before he could plead for release he heard Bellatrix scream.

'Crucio!'

All Taehyung saw was blinding red light. The pain was so terrible that he did not know for how long he screamed. His entire body burned and stinged like his flesh was being cut by fire. He felt something fighting inside him, that powerful rage surging again and suddenly he saw blood, he saw his old house, he heard his mother scream.

No! Not again! Taehyung wanted to cry. Please make it stop!

'Aunt Bella?'

Bellatrix looked up from the boy, towards the other side of the corridor where a girl stood and Taehyung finally felt relief. His mind and body was completely exhausted, fighting the curse and somewhere, fighting himself. The last thing he saw was footsteps of a girl walking towards him and he lost consciousness.

Ash panted heavily. The attacks on the werewolf had completely drained her. Her hands felt heavy and her legs were slowing down. She recognized this werewolf by the Dark Mark on his back. This was not a regular werewolf… could this be the infamous Skoll? He was the only Death Eater who was part creature to be given the higher status of branding with the Dark Mark. The Dark Lord had usually considered werewolves, dementors, giants and other creatures much below the status of pure blood wizards. They were more like slaves to him, to do his dirty work without expecting any fruits in return.

She had been fighting Skoll for a while now. Her strength failed her and she tripped over the broken painting below her, falling on the floor. The werewolf growled and jumped at her but Jimin dived in, covering her with his arms and rolling her out of the way. The wall stopped their momentum and both stood up. Ash looked at Jimin's arms with wide eyes. There were big claw marks on his right arm, blood dripping from it.

The werewolf turned to them and stomped, growling through his teeth. He was annoyed now, having being hit multiple times by Ash. But werewolves healed fast and whatever injuries Ash had caused him were already disappearing.

'What do we do?' Ash whispered to Jimin.

'Continue fighting, we have no other choice,' Jimin said, stepping forward and launching into an offensive mode. But his arm wouldn't let him do much. Ash tried to steady her head and gain some strength to fight again. A bright beam of light shot past her, hitting Skoll. The werewolf was thrown back 10 feet. She looked to her side to see Professor Roland. Relief washed over her as their teacher strided forward to save them.

'Go to Snape immediately,' he said to Jimin, but his eyes were fixed on the werewolf. Jimin hurried towards Ash.

'They have Taehyung. We need to save him!' he said to her urgently.

'But your arm!'

'It was only his claws. Claws don't have the infecting venom. We need to hurry!'

Jin and Namjoon ran through the back wall of their classroom, being pursued by 2 people.

'Why are they chasing us!' Namjoon screamed between his breaths. Jin's wand was not with him. In the sudden attack and sprinting, his wand had got left behind, lying somewhere in the rubble.

They reached the dead end of an old corridor and had no other option but to turn and face their enemy. Namjoon shielded Jin behind him. The chasers halted in front of them. Both students recognised who their attackers were- Alesta Carrow with her red hair falling around her face, giving her the look of a patient run away from an asylum and Antonin Dolohov, big and broad, standing more than 6 feet tall with a square jaw. Both were Death Eaters known for their sadistic treatment of muggle borns. Namjoon's eyes were watching them intensely. There was a moment of silence and Namjoon sent the first attack. He spoke no incantation. The Death Eaters blocked it and sent their own counter attacks. Both parties duelled. To the Death Eater's surprise, Namjoon was evenly matched in power against them.

'Kill him,' Carrow hissed at her partner.

'He's too close to Kim. We can't risk that,' Dolohov stated. Jin realized they probably want to take him. But why? Jin stuck close to Namjoon so that they would not risk using any irreversible curses on him.

'A mudblood with such abilities?' Alesta Carrow sneered, seeing Namjoon's non verbal attacks. 'Too bad I've to kill you,'

Namjoon had no time to pay heed to her words. Dolohov was sending more curses at him. Jin saw a malicious grin on Carrow's face. 'Petrificus Totalus,' Dolohov shot at him.

'Crucio,' Carrow whispered at the same time. A red beam shot from her wand. Jin launched himself in front of Namjoon, taking in both the curses meant for his friend. Namjoon stared wide eyed as he saw the flashes of light in front him from the silhouette of Jin's shoulder. The Death Eaters weren't expecting that. They withdrew their wands. Jin gasped out as the effects of the curses faded. He slowly turned to face them.

'Why are you here?' He asked.

'We don't like questions. Now be a good boy and come with us. Your friend won't live for long trying to save you,' Carrow said.

Suddenly, a thought spoke in Jin's mind, and he knew it was his third eye that was telling him this. They were here for him and Taehyung, and they would kill anyone in their path… and they already had Taehyung.

'I will go with you, if you swear to leave quietly,' Jin said to everyone's shock.

'Jin you can't,' Namjoon said in disbelief.

'Trust me, it's the only way. They will not harm me. Tae will need me,' Jin said to him. 'Protect yourself,'

Giving a squeeze to his best friend's arm, trying to give him an assurance which he himself didn't have, he stepped forward towards the Death Eaters.

'I'm not leaving you,' Namjoon whispered. Jin did not respond but went his way with his capturers with a hard face.

Hoseok was on the floor, his bloody fingers twitching in pain. Emina fell to her knees and collapsed. Both were soaked in red. They had lost a lot of blood and were losing both magical energy and their life force. Jenkins stood in front of them panting. He had almost exhausted all his strength as well. But nevertheless he was happy to be the one giving the final blow.

'I had given you the chance to save your life. Instead you chose to die with this mudblood. Now Which one should I kill first?'

He walked towards Hoseok and bent down. His wand was at his temple. 'Maybe I'll have my revenge first,'

They heard a whizzing sound and the Death Eater was thrown several feet away. Emina looked behind Hoseok. A small figure stood there.

'How dare you harm my students?' Flitwick said, completely enraged. His frame was far from intimidating but the Death Eater knew better. Flitwick whipped his wand wordlessly and sent whip like light strings at Jenkins. It hit his body, splitting open his skin. Jenkins knew he didn't have the strength to fight a full grown expert wizard. He gave a glare to them and transformed into dark smoke. Flitwick shot hexes at the billowing smoke but couldn't stop Jenkins from running away. Once the smoke disappeared, Flitwick's attention immediately went to the two people on the floor. He ran to them.

Yoongi was moving towards the blasting sounds. It seemed to be coming from more than one place. He saw the Gryffindor prefects follow the noise coming from the east.

'Someone check where Mcgonagall is!' Charlie Weasley said to some of his senior housemates who curved towards Mcgonagall's chambers. A nurse was lifting a stunned student onto a stretcher. When she saw Yoongi buzz past her she tried to stop him.

'Let the staff handle it. This is very dangerous!' But he paid no heed to her words.

Reaching the third floor, he found two figures running past them. Yoongi's hex hit one of them and he fell. The other man didn't stop for his fallen friend. Turning him around to see his face, he was shocked to see Twycross. Twycross pushed him away and got on his feet, wand pointed at Yoongi.

'Professor?' Yoongi asked, trying to grasp the situation. Twycross was just an instructor for Apparition from the Ministry.

'You look so surprised boy. I thought you would be expecting this. You lot aren't as smart as I thought,' he mocked.

'What is happening? Why are you terrorising the school?' Yoongi asked.

'I'm helping my friends to collect something we came for. Now be a good boy and let us be,'

'What do you mean your friends? How many are there?'

'There are enough to fight off the whole staff if it came to it. What a golden time for Dumbledore to leave his castle,'

'How did they get here?'

'Why! You haven't even figured that out yet? You were right there when the first ones arrived. Hogwarts grounds is open to apparitions precisely one hour every Tuesday so that you all can practice. You and all the other students were too busy rescuing that Hufflepuff to notice anything,' he laughed. Yoongi squinted his eyes and then he understood.

'Hoseok said someone attacked him, he didn't splinch,' he muttered to himself.

'You should've believed him. Poor thing, I almost felt sorry. We needed that distraction so that -,'

But Yoongi wasn't really listening to what he said. He was shaking in fury, his fists curled. He came hurtling at Twycross before the latter had any time to respond. Yoongi punched him in the jaw and Twycross fell, a broken tooth flying out of his mouth. All he could see now was that image of Hoseok bleeding from every inch of his body and a rage filled him. Yoongi grabbed him by the collar and punched him.

'How could you do that to him!?' Yoongi screamed. Twycross tried to push him away and both rolled on the floor. The older man managed to pin him on the ground and snapped his wand at him. Yoongi kicked him in the stomach. Twycross fell to the side and Yoongi stomped his wand hand. He yelled in pain, letting go of it and Yoongi kicked it away. He grabbed him by the collar and punched him again. Yoongi's knuckles were split open and bleeding by now. It painted Twycross' face red.

'YOONGI STOP!' He heard Jungkook's voice. He felt strong arms grab him from behind and pull him back.

Yoongi pushed Jungkook roughly but that had managed to knock some sense into him. Jungkook fell back gasping. Twycross lay unconscious in front of them, covered in blood.

'Which way did they go?' Jungkook asked Yoongi. Yoongi lifted a shaking bloodied hand in the direction the accomplice had left and Jungkook ran. Yoongi bound Twycross and then ran after Jungkook.

Yoongi heard Laura's voice near the courtyard and stopped, Jungkook right behind him. They peered from the wall and saw Laura talking to Bellatrix. Taehyung was unconscious on the floor. Jin stood with his hands bound, two people keeping a watch on him. A man he recognised as Dolohov, came and lifted Taehyung over his bulky shoulders.

'They're trying to get away!' Yoongi whispered realising Twycross would have lifted the block on apparition in this area. 'You stay here,' he whispered to Jungkook. 'They'll kill you in a moment,'

'And they won't kill you?'

'No they won't. We need to to stall them. Get help Jeon. We can't take them all on our own. He moved out of hiding.

'Dear Laura! How much you've grown!' Bellatrix hugged Laura who stood as still as a statue, her jaw tight.

'Aunt Bella,' Yoongi called out. The woman turned towards him.

'Ah! I was hoping to see you too!' she smiled at them. It was sinister rather than pleasant.

'What are you doing here?' Laura asked, her eyes shooting to Jin and Taehyung. Jin was looking at her suspiciously.

'We've come to take something. Which will help us become stronger. We need our strength for the Dark Lord when he returns,' Bellatrix grinned.

'Something to make you stronger?' Yoongi asked looking at Jin who stood there looking defeated.

'How are these two supposed to make you stronger?' Laura asked, feigning to be unconcerned though she already suspected the answer.

'Well… you remember your dear friend Gwen?' Bellatrix paced around the two students. 'I must convey to you that she misses you deeply.'

'You… you've spoken with her?' Laura's voice shivered.

'Yes I have,' Bellatrix smiled. 'She had such interesting things to tell me,'

'She isn't the most sound minded,' Laura stated cautiously.

'No my dear, you are wrong. You know she's been observing you since 4 years… and she tells me,' Bellatrix halted in front of Laura and cocked her head to the side, 'You are friends with the enemy's son! This boy,' Bellatrix pointed at Taehyung. 'His mother killed yours!'

'That's a lie!' Yoongi cut in. 'We don't know who attacked them that night,'

'Oh but I was there!' Bellatrix's wide eyes snapped to Yoongi, 'I saw it all… how his mudblooded mother shot and killed so many of our own,'

'Laura,' Yoongi caste her a careful look. This was Bellatrix's mind games… they shouldn't let this affect them. Laura looked like she was in pain, this was not something she could discuss with any ease.

'That still doesn't explain why you would need him?' Yoongi said.

'You all act so ignorant,' Bellatrix shook her head. 'Gwen tells me this boy has something special about him… And we wish to trade him,' she grabbed Taehyung by the chin. 'His price should be high, being the descendent of Aquirys,' she chucked his face and walked to Jin, 'And this handsome young man,' Bellatrix pushed her wand right into Jin's chest, 'will keep us away from Ministry's harm,' she turned to him, 'Daddy would hate to see you… dead, wouldn't he? He doesn't have another son to fill in for you,'

'You have the wrong boy,' Jin said. 'I am enough for you. Let him go. You can ask Laura. It was not Taehyung who fought Gwen that day. Aquirys is my ancestor not his!' he looked at Laura begging her to understand his plan. Laura clenched her jaws.

'He-He's not lying,' she said, hoping she was following Jin correctly. 'Seokjin was there when I found Gwen with this boy. He could be the one you are looking for because the younger one is pretty useless and dim witted from what I've seen. He's a half blood of a muggle born mother. He doesn't have any special ancestors! Gwen is not the best investigator you know. She doesn't know how to accept that her guesses were wrong. You should've never put her to any task. She will weave any stories to make believe that she was right,' Laura stated. Yoongi looked from Jin to Laura in confusion.

'In any case, I'll see for myself if this boy is useful to us or not. If not we'll give back his mother what she gave us. You would like that won't you Laura? The death of your parents will be avenged,' Bellatrix said and the Death Eaters turned to leave. Laura couldn't stop herself. She had her wand out and took a step forward but Bellatrix saw that from the corner of her eye.

'Is there a problem?' Bellatrix stopped and turned her face to them. Her eyes were curious. She reverted her course and walked towards them with careful steps, her wand tip touching the finger of the other hand.

Laura didn't know what to say. Yoongi had his wand at the ready too.

'Now that I think of it…' Bellatrix scrunched her nose, 'I was... never fully convinced of your mother's loyalty. She always seemed… too shifty,'

'How dare you question her mother's loyalty! After she died for the Dark Lord!' Yoongi asserted.

'Trust me dear I don't want to question my own blood… but some actions,' she stated, walking around Laura again like a spider slowly weaving her trap and her voice turning to a whisper, 'left a lot of doubts in my mind,' she faced them again. 'I'm sure you'll clear my doubts dear Laura, won't you?'

'How can I clear the doubts about a person who is not alive?' Laura asked in an icy tone. Her purple eyes looked hard at her aunt.

'By doing, what your mother would have done. If you are saying she was loyal. Prove yourself… to me. You know what, I'll make it easy for you. Gwen tells me, there is someone you here who you really really hate… Carpe Retractum!'

Bellatrix pointed to something behind Laura and Yoongi. She pulled her wand like she's pulling a rope and a figure dragged itself from behind the wall. She seized the boy from his neck and put her wand to his neck.

'You like to eavesdrop huh?' She asked Jungkook, who struggled in her grasp. Dolohov punched his face and he fell to the ground. Jungkook swiftly tried to stand up but the hex from Bellatrix's wand held him pinned to the ground. He struggled to break free but was no match to her magic.

'I'm sure you've wanted to cause him unimaginable pain over these past years,' she said to Laura. 'For all the times he's humiliated you, broken your pride. Well now is your chance,'

Jungkook looked at Laura fiercely, he did not know what she will do. The Death Eaters had all of them at their mercy.

'Why aren't you doing anything! You know the curse!' Bellatrix hissed at her. Laura just stood there, not lifting her wand. Her brain had stopped working under all this pressure.

'Maybe she doesn't want to. Are you protecting these mudbloods?' Carrow asked her in a threatening tone.

'I do not serve any of you so why should I listen to you?' she snapped back, trying to shield her fear with her pride.

'Your family serves the Dark Lord and so will you,' Carrow said.

'Yes and none of you are the Dark Lord. Your actions look sloppy if nothing else,' Laura snapped.

'You dare talk back to us?' Rodolphus Lestrange seemed highly offended. 'We are doing this to make our army stronger when the Dark Lord returns and he will be pleased-'

'The Dark Lord is dead!' Laura's voice rang in the sudden silence. All looked at her with horrified faces.

'He is alive…' Bellatrix whispered, inching towards Laura. 'HE IS ALIVE!' she screamed like a maniac. 'You will listen to me, by one way or the other. I'm not going to use the Imperius curse on you… no where's the fun in that?'

The Death Eaters who were earlier not in an attack mode at Yoongi and Laura, now started to circle them. The two teenagers weren't really any match to their dark arts. Both didn't know what to do or how to even launch an attack right now. Rodolphus cast a binding curse on Yoongi and grabbed him.

'Point your wand at the mudblood,' Bellatrix said to Laura, a cocky grin creeping up her face. 'If you don't do as I say… then your cousin and this boy, both suffer,' she looked at Jungkook. 'I might even kill your little plaything,'

'If you have me, let them go!' Jin called out from the back, struggling with all his strength. He got a heavy blow in the stomach to shut him up.

'Do it!' Bellatrix snapped at her. When she still did not lift her wand, the woman motioned to her husband who moved his wand across Yoongi's cheek. A gash appeared on the pale white skin, red dripping down from it. But Yoongi refused to show any pain.

'NO!' Laura yelled in horror.

'You know what you have to do,' Bellatrix sang in an eerie tone.

Laura slowly raised her wand at Jungkook, still unable to say the curse. Her mouth was dry as sand and she felt like she was choking in her own emotions. The intensity with which Jungkook looked her in the eye was confusing her. Was he being brave? Or was he being understanding?

'Fine then let me show you. Cruc-'

But she was struck by a bright red flash of light. All looked back to see Namjoon standing there with his wand out.

'You won't harm them anymore,' he said dangerously. His eyes were burning into them all. This side of his rarely surfaced. But when it did, it was more dangerous than anything else. The scattered Death Eaters gathered themselves. Bellatrix was looking at him with careful eyes, as if studying him.

'And who do we have here? Another mudblood?' She sneered.

Namjoon stepped forward. 'Let them go,'

'Come and get em,' Bellatrix hissed, launching into an attack. There were flashes of light as both duelled. This was nothing like the students had ever seen. This was a real, life or death situation where no one gave the other any time to think. Two flashes of green just buzzed past Namjoon and Jin felt like tearing open his insides if he could. Bellatrix could kill him any moment and it was sheer luck that he was missing.

'Boy you think your schooled hexes will do anything to me?' She danced from one foot to another, sending hexes as she conversed. 'You are as good as dead,' she stood to face him.

'Avada Kedavra!' She shot him the third time. Namjoon felt a blow on his side and fell to the floor. Jin screamed in horror, shaking so badly that he broke his binding curse and ran to Namjoon before anyone could catch him again. Jungkook screamed too but felt a kick on his stomach. Tears filled his eyes. But in their shock and fear they were not grasping the key element of the situation.

Jin fell to his knees next to Namjoon and saw him move. It was not over yet.

Bellatrix looked to her side suspiciously. Jimin stood there, his wand held out. He had struck Namjoon with the expulsion curse just in time that her killing curse missed him again. His arm was bleeding but he looked far from weak. Meanwhile Namjoon stood up with Jin help, trying to recover from Jimin's saving blow.

'We are even now aren't we?' He said. Laura gained her position too. Now it was 4 students against 5 Death Eaters. It was hardly even but they would take their chances. Namjoon was as good as 2 of them.

'4 puny students?' Carrow gave her high pitched laugh and then suddenly became silent. They all looked behind Jimin and saw Mcgonagall and Sprout standing there with their wands out.

'Let's move,' Bellatrix muttered, all joy vanishing from her face. They all turned into dark smoke but Jungkook caught the leg of Dolohov who was carrying Taehyung and disapparated with them. He was not letting them take his friend away.

'No they don't,' Mcgonagall said almost instantly shooting curses at them. They couldn't perform a full disapparition inside Hogwarts. They teleported short distances, getting hit by the professor's attacks each time they materialised. Professor Sprout was equally fierce, moving at great speed for her. They reached the ground where they could disapparate out of Hogwarts but Jungkook had gained his state of mind by now. His grip on the man was so strong that not once did he fall away during their teleportation. Finally he managed to grab hold of the man and pushed Taehyung out of his shoulder. Taehyung fell from a height of six feet but at least he was safe now. Jungkook held on to Dolohov and punched him hard, ending his ability to teleport anymore. Both landed on the ground a some distance away from Taehyung. Jungkook's anger and frustration could not be delivered by small swift movements of a wand. The man staggered, his mouth bloody. But Jungkook didn't stop. He grabbed him again and kicked him hard in the chest with the knee. When the man came at him, he held his waist and lifted him by the shoulder only to slam him down again. Dolohov was almost unconscious. Jungkook stood up, wiping his cheek where a wound bled and ran towards Taehyung.

Mcgonagall and Sprout were chasing the Death Eaters at their heels. Curses were being shot in both directions. One of Bellatrix's curses hit Mcgonagall square in the chest. She tripped and fell back, clutching her throat in pain. Sprout stopped to help her.

'Catch them,' Mcgonagall wheezed through her closing windpipe.

'I won't leave you to die. Anapneo,' she worked the anti hex to release her windpipe. They heard the last of Bellatrix's maniacal laugh as they disapparated. Mcgonagall and Sprout looked at the dark smoke diffusing into the high sky with grieved faces.

Everyone made their way back to the castle. Jungkook was carrying Taehyung and Hagrid carried Dolohov, who Jungkook had beaten to a pulp. They gathered in the Great Hall. Jimin was getting his arm bandaged by a nurse and Snape was giving him a potion to drink.

'Are you absolutely sure it was his claws?' Snape asked him again.

'Positive,' Jimin confirmed again.

'I'm giving you a strong dose as a precaution. It may give you nightmares or hallucinations'

'Nightmares are better than turning into a werewolf,' he said, downing the black potion. 'Where's Professor Roland?' he asked. When Snape gave no answer, Jimin looked up with worry. 'Professor what's happened?'

'Roland is in the infirmary. We are trying to heal him,' was all Snape said before moving away. From his tone Jimin knew Roland's condition was serious.

Ash had decided to stay in the castle and help the injured students to the infirmary who were attacked as they tried to stop the Death Eaters from sprinting. Laura went to her roommate, grabbing her arm. Whatever had just happened was too much for her to take in. Ash squeezed Laura's hand in return, happy that she was unharmed too.

Yoongi walked up to a nurse, showing his bloodied knuckles and his face for medication. He saw Flitwick walk towards Sprout and overheard their conservation.

'Jung Hoseok is in quite a bad state,' Flitwick told her. 'Go see him, maybe you know what herb can work on him,'

'They used a dark curse?' Sprout asked. 'That poor boy… when will they leave him alone,'

Yoongi felt a restlessness inside him, the same way he had the last time Hoseok was hurt. He rushed behind Sprout to see Hoseok.

'Take Taehyung to the infirmary,' Mcgonagall said to Jungkook who turned to leave but stopped, hearing the Great Doors open. Dumbledore stood there, looking so furious that they couldn't even recognise him as the same happy Headmaster who always joked with them. He rushed to Mcgonagall.

'The students?' He asked worriedly.

'Some are hurt but no serious damage seems to have happened,'

'Have you put a search on?' He asked.

'Yes. Flitwick and the rest of the Professors are doing a thorough search. But I don't think there's anyone who was left behind,'

Dumbledore looked around and spotted Jimin's wounds and the potion in his hand.

'Did the werewolf escape as well?' He asked.

'No. Roland killed him in his transformed state,' Snape said.

'Albus we need to speak urgently,' Mcgonagall said to him, placing a hand on his arm. He nodded. He turned to the students.

'I am gravely and deeply sorry that the safety of this school had been compromised on my watch. But I assure you, nothing like this will ever happen in Hogwarts again. You have my word. The Death Eaters will pay for their crimes. I am proud of how brave and responsible you all acted tonight,,' his eyes were twinkling again, looking at his students.

'Someone from the students surely helped them,' a seventh year Hufflepuff spoke up.

'We will hold a formal investigation Brian,' Mcgonagall said to him.

'They won't be too far away to find,' Sierra added, shooting a look to the Slytherins. There was an awkward silence as the Slytherins stared back at her fiercely. Jimin looked like he would kill her with his gaze.

'Let the investigation decide that Miss Gibson,' Mcgonagall said to her curtly. 'Professors can we all meet in Dumbledore's office please?'

The professors all walked towards the corridor to the Headmaster's office. The Slytherins huddled together, happy to have survived the attack. All except Jimin were mostly unharmed.

'That was very brave Jimin,' Laura said to him, coming at his side.

'He saved my life,' Ash said, looking at him gratefully, keeping a hand on his shoulder. Nothing she could say would fully deliver the gratitude she felt for him. Jimin gave her a tired but warm smile.

They heard some words here and there from the conversation the other house students were having.

'Wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange there too?'

'Why did they come here?'

'Is You Know Who back?!'

'I think they just wanted to spread terror,'

'Did they come here to attack Dumbledore?'

'How did they even get inside Hogwarts?'

'It's impossible without help from the inside,'

'Aren't Min and Dracwyn related to Lestrange?'

'All Slytherins are related to each other aren't they? Trying to keep bloodlines pure,'

The students were giving the Slytherin prefects suspicious looks. Ash couldn't believe they were again being treated unjustly even though they readily jumped in to save the castle. She saw a tall figure walk through the group of students towards them. It was the head boy. He bent to his knees in front of Jimin who was seated on a bench. Namjoon hugged him, inviting looks from everyone.

'I am alive, because of you…' he said to the younger. 'I cannot thank you enough… I owe you my life,'

'You don't owe me anything Namjoon,' Jimin said. 'I couldn't lose my friend, could I?' He said, a small smile on his exhausted face.

Laura walked towards Jin who was holding an ice pack to his face.

'We need to talk,' she said to him.

'Yes we do,' he said and both sneaked to an empty corridor.

'Why did the Death Eaters want you?' She asked after casting the sound barrier charm.

'You heard them. For leverage. But what I don't understand is, why are you always there when something like this happens?'

Laura didn't know what to say exactly. She opened and closed her mouth twice before being able to form a sentence.

'Well last time, it was my roommate who was doing this crazy stuff so I had to butt in. And this time I just happened to be there,'

'Don't lie. What's happening between you and Taehyung?'

'What do you mean what's happening?'

Jin crossed his arms. 'I know you were looking for him, trying to protect him. You did something to Gwen and that's why she hasn't come back,'

'That's a very serious accusation Kim Seokjin. You better know what you are speaking,' she wagged a finger at him.

'I know what I am speaking. You can't fool everyone. Dracwyn, our families may not like each other but we've been around each other since we were eleven. You were never the cruel one. If you care about Taehyung then tell me what did Gwen tell the Death Eaters about him,'

'Seokjin, I'm not lying to you when I say I have no idea that Gwen told them about that incident from last year. Till now I have been thinking they were getting sadistic pleasure out of teasing that boy, and masking it as vengeance against his mother. When I saw the two in that frosted room, I only thought it was some kind of defense charm that you casted. And today, again I find you both being captured. So you tell me, why were they here for the 2 of you? Is it really true? That… you two are… gifted?'

'I assure you that is not true.. If you really want Taehyung to be safe, you will not let the investigation turn towards him. He is an innocent, good hearted kid. Dragging him into this is only going to make him scared and anxious,'

'Wait, why are you telling me all this?'

'Like I said, I've seen you since we were kids. And I'm not someone who is easily fooled. I may look like I'm always joking around but I know and observe more than anyone thinks I do. I know the truth about the Shrieking Shack. I know you came to save Taehyung from Gwen last year,'

'You've got it all wrong,' her eyes were apprehensive.

'There's no need to lie to me. I am not your enemy. If I was, I would've told the whole school about your other side ages ago,' Saying that he walked away to join Namjoon. Laura was left gaping behind him.

How does he even know all of this? She wondered. She could feel her secret slipping away from her hands. After what Jungkook witnessed when they were with the Death Eaters, she was sure he would have some doubts too. Not to forget the Death Eaters themselves were suspicious of her and her family now.

* * *

 **Author's Note -**

Hi! :)

Thank you so much for reading this far. I hope you liked this story, I really enjoy writing it and interacting with my lovely readers.

That's why, after looking at some parameters, I've decided to move solely to Archive of Our Own (Ao3). It gives me better freedom to interact with readers, put down some special information, share creations related to this work, add mood music etc.

So if you've liked this story, please come over and continue reading it there.

 **This website won't let me add a link to the story ahead even if I mask it :( I'm so sorry! Please find me on Ao3 by username jackfruitnim, story name House of Cards.** **I will be very very happy to see you there! :D**

You can find me on twitter too and I can send you the link if you need. username - jackfruitnim

 **OH! and here is a very basic trailer,** you can check it out on Ao3 (I literally broke my head right now trying to add the youtube link... why you do this ff)


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